I was diagnosed with C.F. at birth but kept well, with odd i.v antibiotics until I was around 14 years old. From then on I had recurrent chest infections every month which resulted in decreased lung funtion and lots of I.V's!! I was asked to consider a transplant assessment when I was 24, which after that, I took six months to think about all the pros and cons.  I decided to go on the list in November 1999.  Luckily, I got my transplant the following January after being rather ill in December and requiring overnight oxygen.

The operation took ten hours, starting at 9am on the Saturday until 7pm. I woke up on the Sunday morning in CCU (Critical Care unit) and moved into the HDU (High Dependency unit) by 11pm Sunday evening.  On the Monday, I went to the gym and started my exercises.  Two weeks after my transplant, I was able to go home with twice weekly visits to the hospital.  I felt so well and it was a novel to be able to breathe!!  After I had got over the hyperventilating! I still have good days and bad days but more good days.  The bad days consist of aches and pains through to just feeling completely lethargic so I sleep for a couple of hours in the day.

All I can say is if Transplantation is for you and you decide to go for it, then make sure you keep yourself as well as possible. Take all your medication, starting i.v's as early as possible if you have a chest infection, so there is as little lung damage caused.  Also, if you require supplementary feeding to maintain your weight, then keep this up.  You will have more strength to fight infections pre transplant and more strength to recover after the operation.  All this could improve your chances of receiving some organs if you are an average weight for height.  Good luck to anyone who is going through these decisions at the moment.