One Year On: Melissa (A Greater Perspective on Life)

Amazing photo taken by Diana Lemieux.

A Greater Perspective on Life

Well I still can't believe it’s been a year and what a year I must add!!! How that time has just flown, well maybe not for Ben but definitely for me.

I remember getting the call from Jacqui about 5.15pm. I had just turned my mobile on which is very bizarre because I normally wait until I get on the train. She said that Ben had received a call about a possible transplant. That night was the strangest night - sitting there waiting to see whether it was a match and if he would be having it or not. Strangely, I just knew it was going to happen and had to fly to Queensland to be there with the rest of the family.

I got a call from Mum in the early hours of the morning to say it was all going ahead. I called Paul to help make flight reservations and then started packing (this is like 3.30am!!!).

I will never forget arriving at the hospital and going into intensive care, seeing Ben lying there and everything just hit all at once - reality had set in. You hear about it on the phone, but to see it in person is another thing. I realised then what everyone had been going through during these very stressful, awful, times. How I wished I had been there to go thru it with everyone and I felt so bad I hadn't.

I remember while looking at Ben and all those machines (oh those
machines!!) I felt faint and was going to pass out. Mum had to get the nurse and they end up wheeling me out in a wheel chair, into the waiting room, how embarrassing!!! Here Ben is in ICU and I'm passing out!! But it is very common the nurse said. I did give everyone a scare though!!!

After what we all saw and the ups/downs with Ben, how he spent longer in ICU than expected, whether his body would accept the new lungs; it was all just waiting game. You soon get a greater perspective of life and how precise your family/friends are and what you can do for others too.

Because I live in Melbourne it is very hard for me to get up there all the time, but I keep in constant contact with everyone - I honestly don't know how Mum has managed through this last year and the previous years too. She definitely is one in a million and to me hasn't complained at all. I suppose that's what you do when you love that special person in your life.

How has Ben copped with all this, I honestly don’t know but I suppose you do. You get a 2nd chance of life but to go through all of this, on top of the lungs - the surgeries, backwards/forwards to see specialists/hospital, rejections, now shingles, you name it he has had it. What more can go wrong you ask????

Well I now hope the next 12 months things really do pick up and I'm sure they will and he can start to live a much more normal life again. He so deserves all this for everything he has been through. I wish you Ben all the very best for the next year - I think about you all the time and love you heaps. You have always been there for me and given me so much. You’ve treated me like your own daughter. Oh and also given me some stern words but it has made me take a good look at myself and get on with my life too in a positive direction.

Happy One Year Anniversary!

Melissa