Home Sweet Home

Wayne Annan
Nov 9, 2017
8 min read

New Life

It is 7 weeks since I had my gift given to me, a gift of life. I am getting stronger and fitter each day, able to now look ahead

and plan life again, look forward to resuming as normal a life as I can. I can say that I am one lucky person as are all those that receive a transplant either heart or lung. Most of the time when someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness or disease they will pass away after a certain time. In our case we are given a second chance, thanks to the generosity of the donor family.

We moved to Hearty Towers on 30th September 2017 and were discharged on the 3rd November. We thought we would be there for another week, so it came as a bit as a surprise to be told we could go home that day instead of just the weekend. During the 5 weeks at Hearty Towers we made friends for life and were able to help an assist others coming in and who were there at the same time, we became a little family.

My recovery has been nothing short of amazing. At 62 years of age I have had one of the quicker recoveries, most folk are

at least 8 weeks before being able to go home for a visit, and my wound has completely healed and soon will not be very noticeable. The recovery has been assisted by my level of fitness and positive, optimistic outlook, even though I have a bung knee that also needs replacing, I have kept myself as fit as possible given the illness I had. Once again I can only say if you are going to get really sick make sure you are physically and mentally fit.

I have had a constant flow of visitors and thank each of them, there are too many to mention, but those that did come made

both Pauline and my life more enjoyable and helped us prepare for the return to a new normal life.

Martyn from the Gold Coast, a swimming buddy, dropped in and presented me with a Kangaroo cap, guess I deserved that as I frequently remind him that he is a QueeNZlander.

The next thing we have to get used too is being well. Being well, not sick, not being able to do things because they are simply too tough, try as much as I could. It will take a while to be able to do everything, I am still limited. I have to be careful how much I lift, as my sternum was cut, it takes 6 weeks to knot together which it has done now, however I have little upper body strength yet, so need to build some muscle and that will take some time. I cannot go all out and need to pace myself to allow the body to heal and remain healthy.

During our time at Hearty Towers there was another Heart recipient from the South Island. He had been ill for many years and had been waiting for about 2 years and had a false alarm last year. A false alarm occurs when the heart has either deteriorated during the retrieval and delivery process or is found to be unsuitable upon sighting the organ. He had his transplant 2 weeks earlier than I did, and required ongoing dialysis to get his kidneys working again. Again it demonstrates that each story is different and there is no average or normal in this process, one must learn to go with the flow and trust the medical people entirely.

He and his support people had not seen much of Auckland so

while his Mother-in-law was there we took them to Piha, a

famous and very dangerous west coast surf beach, they do a TV series called Piha Rescue. We had lunch in the Surf Club and they got to see not only the beach but the life-guards, the First Aid and Control rooms. It was wonderful to go out to the beach and feel the sand beneath the feet, even the black iron sand of the west coast felt great, at some stages both of us thought we would never again be able to experience such simple things in life. Whilst I have always enjoyed and embraced life to the full, I now have a much better appreciation of how important these small things are.

We also went to the Outrageous Fortune house in West

Auckland. This is a TV show that kind of epitomises Westie Life, it is 1.4km from where I grew up and spent my early life. The house was one of the flash houses back in those days. Some of the programs are kind of reliving my early life. That was a wee thrill for the Mainlanders (South Islanders), seeing places they have only seen on TV. We also took them on the Motorway, through the new tunnel and across the Harbour Bridge and had another lunch at Narrow Neck, unfortunately that day was a grey day with rain and mist everywhere.

We also visited MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology). They held a display called Brave Hearts – The New Zealand Cardiac Story, which explains how the heart works, how heart disease is investigated, and the largely untold story of New Zealand’s leading role in the evolution of heart surgery. The first Heart Transplant in New Zealand was in 1987 and I am #318. This year there has been 20 heart transplant so far, the most in a year with 3 months still to go.

Organs transplanted 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Hearts 11 12 9 17 12 11

Lungs 10 12 19 17 23 17

The success rate for a heart transplant is 90% after the first year and 78% after 5 years, the longest living heart transplant passed away recent after 33 years, we have met recipients who are at 25 and 30 years post transplant. If I am one of those I will become the longest living member of my family, unless one or both of my parents make it to 100 yrs.

Hic Cups

As I mentioned in my last blog I experience AF (atrial fibrillation) which has been controlled by drugs. It has provided some interesting side effects for me. My resting pulse is around 60-63, it varies a little from day to day, when I exercise my heart rate will go to 90ish, when I put in more effort and work really hard it goes down to mid 80’s and I run out of gas. It feels like hitting the wall in a marathon run or swim. The body closes down and will not work due to a lack of blood supply to the muscles, I don’t get breathless as I did before the transplant. This is due to the effect of the drugs holding the heart rate down and constant. I am now being weaned off this drug and having to closely monitor my heart rate to ensure I do not go back into AF.

Each of the transplant recipients have their own story and recovery, as mentioned there is no normal and no average. We each have great days, and not so good days, (I don’t like calling them bad days) because they all better than the any of the days before the transplant. These not so good days tend to happen following a very good period, seem to be due to perhaps needing a bit more rest. They sneak up in a variety of forms, ie put on 2kg over 24 hours, thus the body holds fluid or just knackered and not sleeping well. There were 3 of us at Hearty Towers together and each of us had one of those days consecutively over three days, one of us each day, but feeling great again the following day.

Rehab

The physical rehab is going well, we have increased the reps and weights, it is taking less time to get through the program now. 5 days straight each weeks is a heavy load and I am tired by the end of the week and Friday sessions are hard work. We do a 6 minute walk periodically to provide feedback on improvement, for me this is interesting due to my bung knee. I am fitter now than the test demonstrates and wish I could do a test either in the water or on the bike, mind the exercise cycles they have are not designed for bike riders, they are uncomfortable and one cannot get in the best position, they are set up to sit on in an upright position peddling at about 60-65 rpm rather than the normal 90 rpm I am used to.

At 6.5 weeks I walked to the top of One Tree Hill, one of our

volcanos in Auckland. This is a challenge that most recipients take on as a step toward a new normal life.

This was done the day after I had gone to a concert by a Led

Zeppelin cover band (The Zepp Boys / Led Zeppelin Masters) and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at the Civic with Pauline. Both of these events are significant for me, 8 weeks ago I was considering life and not really expecting to be able to do these types of things again either ever again or not for a long time. It again demonstrates how quickly our life can change, like the April day I had the heart attack, like the day I was accepted to do an MBA and the day I decided to do the Ironman, each of these have had a major impact on my life. The event, the transplant is as big as the day I released Pauline was the one that would fill the hole in my life that I have had for much of my adult life.

Once again I can plan, look forward and share new experiences, mentor others and help make a wee difference, challenge myself and others to be not only the best they can but to extend ourselves toward some unknown potential that we each have. These are the things that are important to me, however I may become a little more selfish and focus more on myself, Pauline and family. My work remains important to me, I have done what I want to in my career and now wish to help others, which the Mediation work I do does and is satisfying to me. I will be looking after myself better than I did in the past, I have an obligation to the donor family to make the most of the gift I have been given.

Again I want to thank everyone who has involvement in this process the staff and surgeons at Auckland Hospital, Pauline and Leeanna and my family, the friends who have visited me and the help they provided both Pauline, through relief, and to myself, to those of you who have sent your wishes and support.

This blog is not finished yet, there are some important steps left to go to return to the new normal life I have ahead, whatever that looks like. I have been given entry into the Auckland Bike the Bridge (a 22km bike ride across the Auckland Harbour Bridge and back in February) and of course go back to swimming, hopefully in March. I have set a target of going to the World Transplant Games in Manchester in 2019.