Marcia

Hi, my name is Marcia and I have COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)..this means I have Emphasema, Asthma and Chronic Bronchitis. I had Asthma as a young child but grew out of it (or so I thought). When I was 13, I started smoking cigarettes, because my older brother did and my friends were starting to do it. I had my first child in 1973, at the age of 16 and smoked while I was pregnant. I wasn't supposed to be smoking, let along smoke while I was pregnant. I got married in 1975, and had my second child in October 1976, and my third child in November 1978. Yes, I smoked during those pregnancies also. In the 70's, it wasn't "taboo" to smoke when you were pregnant. My children have grown up to be very healthy adults. Lisa has a healthy son; Tammy has 4 healthy children and Scott is in the Army and unmarried. In 1988, I was at work at Job Corps in St. Paul, MN, and was having difficulty breathing. I left work and went to see my doctor and he asked me "how long have you had Asthma?" I told him I didn't, and he said I did and that I had a bad case of it. He put me on medications and inhalers and sent me home. It didn't take too many years for my health to deteriorate...by 1990 I started collecting Social Security Disability and Medicare in 1992. I was evaluated at the Mayo Clinic in 2004 for Lung Transplant, but was turned down. They said I didn't have the right enzymes or antibodies for mononucleosis. Several years later, I went to the University of Minnesota to be evaluated to see if I was a candidate for Lung Volume Reduction Surgery. I was told that I was not a candidate because my lungs were full of Emphasema and there was no room for expansion. In February 2014, Dr. Sonja Bjerk, my Pulmonologist from Essentia Health, Duluth, MN, asked me if I had ever thought of Lung Transplant again. I told her what they had told me at Mayo Clinic. She said she hadn't seen anything like that in the notes they sent to Dr. Gary Kindt, Pulmonologist and colleague of Dr. Bjerk. And asked me to think about it and talk it over with my husband. Bob and I talked it over....I saw Dr. Marshall Hertz, Pulmonologist, University of Minnesota, April of 2014 and because I had a Mental set back in March they wanted me to wait a year and see how I was doing then. After a year with counseling I feel wonderful about myself and life and I am definitely ready for transplant!!! I went through evaluation the last week of April 2015. And My Coordinator called me on June 26, 2015 and told me that I am on the Active "A" List!!! I am so excited and jump every time the telephone rings and I don't go anywhere without my cell phone!!