Season of the Monarch

The Monarchs are back! I was astonished the first autumn I spent here on Bay Street to find at least a month where not a day went by without a monarch butterfly or two passing my balcony on its way to ...South America? It seemed like a fluke. Or a sign. I found a lot of encouragement in that happening and my mother made it into an emblem for me, adding it as the image on my calling card and making a stained glass container for the cards.

Now it has happened again. The Monarchs are back. No fluke. Those guys are inspired to keep going. A whole year and then some and I'm still here waiting but, the important bit is the 'still here' part. Life is stripped quite bare by now and even so, it offers up stunning moments like the day last week of the first Monarch sighting.

The last few months have been filled with a new element. That of hired caregivers. I've had women from Russia, Antigua, Ethiopia, China, Hungary and Jamaica come to do everything from pick up and dust the apartment, to escorting me to the treadmill room. Combined with the emotional support that I've always got from my team and family, I feel as if I'm the central figure in a Noh theatre piece, everyone else dressed in black, invisibly facilitating my being able to lead my life of 'independance'. I'm so impressed at the gentleness and kindness these women offer day after day allowing me the dignity of a relatively seamless life even when I need so much help to pull it off.

On a very exciting note, all transplant hopefulls were called to a meeting a few weeks ago to hear a presentation by the head surgeon, Dr. Shav Keshavjii. Dr Keshavjii was the surgeon who did my first transplant and is a brilliant fellow) He wanted to present us with an exciting new project called HELP which will change lung tranplant radically. The research is done. The approvals are in and the live study is underway.

Kshavjii told us that of all the lungs donated only 18% are in usable shape when they arrive at the hospital on ice. The rest have minor to major problems. He has developed an invivo process (like an incubator) to hold a less than perfect lung, infuse it with air (rather than keep it on ice) and allow it to rest for a period of a few hours. He has found that this rest period allows a very high percentage of the lungs to self correct and make them meet or exceed the standards for transplant. He was looking to us to sign forms if we were willing to receive a 'reconditioned' lung. Projecting into the not too distant future, he could see having lungs held in a 'bank' ready for use when the need arose, hence cutting out this dreadful waiting period. It would also of course increase the percentage of usable lungs, he felt, to 60%...quite a leap from 18%. All VERY exciting.

Reporting from the Monarch counting station here on Bay ST Toronto
correspondent Sandra Winter