A Quest for a Lung

Hello, and welcome to the Gifted Life Podcast, where we have conversations about organ tissue and eye donation and transplantation. You can always find us at thegiftedlife.org. I'm Risio. Hi, I'm Joey Boudreau.

And I'm Nyla Schwab. Coming up on this episode, we'll be talking to someone who's sharing his personal journey through transplant to better prepare others who are on a similar path. And also when life knocks you down, what do you do? You get back up?

How? And that's what we're going to be talking about. Alright, I like it. Hang on to your hats.

Here we go. You're on the Gifted Life Podcast. We are excited to introduce you to our newest friend, Mr. Ron Chapman.

How are you? I'm doing just fine. It's called the港 Cast Crew today. We understand that you are a Louisiana historian.

So thanks for keeping that culture alive for us. Thank you. And you're also a recipient. Yes, single one on April 24, 23, it's two years now, just about two years.

Well, we have a lot to learn from you and we know that you want honor your hero today. And we'll let you do that. Before we get into it, we don't want to let folks know that if you go to Amazon, which is where we get a lot of our shopping done, um, and you search a quest for a lung, a journey through transplant, you'll see Ron's book, a quest for a lung, and it has a tie to Louisiana as well, which is pretty cool and we'll tell you about that and to LOPA. So Mr.

Ron are just going to jump right in. Tell us a little bit about who Ron is. Well, I ended graduate school and became a boat builder for 28 years, and started a business, and after that, I started teaching at night. They have to teach full-time.

So I've been teaching full-time at the UNS Community College for 25 years now, professor of history, Louisiana, world, and American. And then I always went for a regular hard checkup, and the doctor said, you heard something. He said, I'm listening. I hear something.

I said, I hope it's a heartbeat. He says, no, it is a heartbeat, but it's not what's going on. And they sent me to pulmonology, and asked me when they decided that I had fibrosis. Now, the cause of it is a question.

They diagnosed me as hypersensitivity in the new anitis, which is basically a reaction to the air in the environment. I was in shell met at the time. I was sent to move, and there's a lot of refineries. And they seem to think that may have triggered it.

We don't really know it. Everything dealing with lungs is rather strange. A lot of crossover. There's a lot that's not known why things happen.

So I'm seeing Dr. Lasky at Tulane. And then finally, after a while, as a situation deteriorated, he sent me to Houston. First place I went was Baylor.

And I went through the whole process there. And at the final analysis, they decided that they wouldn't do it. And that's because I'm 74, I guess. And they transferred my records to Houston Methodist.

And we went there. I think we'd just be there for about a day or two, reading Dr. Yussaf, instead he threw me an ICU. And I said, you're not going to make it home.

And then after that, I was in the hospital. It's a very short time. I was extremely fortunate. I was in the hospital on April 4th and April 18th.

I was listed. And on April 24th, I got along. Oh, that's pretty fast. Is that fast in the transplant?

Let me know. That would be fast, right? Yeah, that's very fast. Yeah, by your presence, that we had used to eight months waiting for a long.

Yeah. Wow. When I'm just thinking, to me, this just happened, like in my brain and the timeline. And then you had to underwrite a book to help other people.

Like, that's pretty incredible. Well, what happened now is after surgery, since I've done some other writing, after surgery, they loaded me up with, you know, for me with friendas, oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, try to imagine somebody putting on a thousand milligrams.

Yeah, your eyes were open for a week. Eyes were wide open for like a week. Yeah, exactly. You know, so I had my work process with me.

So I just sat down and started thinking about all the longer than I had gone through. And we weren't prepared for a lot of it. And that it may be an opportunity for me to make something positive about it. By letting future patients, and it's not just long.

It's any transplanting process. And I don't know that. There's a lot of things you're not going to know about. A, medical, you know, but the after effects, how you have to hear it, handling yourself and treat yourself.

But at the time, like I said, we went there thinking we were going to go for two days, we were there for eight and a half months. It cost us 24,000 out of pocket. You know, because you had to cover housing and everything else. And then what do you do with your home?

You know, who takes care of it? Who comes to the grass? Who starts to go out? Who's out of the animal, male?

If you have children, a pet, how you handle that? These are all factors that, you know, people aren't prepared for it. That's what I try to do is let them know, look, this is what you're staring down a barrel of. So be prepared.

Yeah, that's amazing. That's, it really is to. That is so many things I would ever have thought about. Yeah.

Yeah, because you're always like, we're always thinking ahead. We're thinking ahead, what's happening within the walls of the hospital? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like we think, you know, what prepare for all the things that happen within the hospital's walls.

And you're talking about so many, everything that you're talking about is things that happen outside of the hospital walls, you know, that you just don't think of. Which is everything. You just sit down and you think about it. Like it's a wonderful place called lower house that was set up by a Dr.

Garber who lost his daughter and donated a lot of organs. And he set it up at, right in a medical district there. And it's like 32 suites. And you go in and you can stay there.

And there's a communal kitchen and stuff like that. Well, that's only 40 hours a night. Which is great. Sometimes a little more depends on your income.

But it still comes out to a bit of trouble. It's only, you always stay for three months. So you stay there for three months. Then you have to find another place.

Like the hospitality house. Stay there for three months. Then we found a charity that had a apartment that 81, 81, and then we stayed there for three months. So you're a gypsy.

There's no one place you could stay. Unless you have the funds to rent a apartment. And then you use them as not cheap. Yeah.

So you have those kind of things you've got to deal with. Yeah. And since you've moved around so much, it's hard to get mail. I stayed there.

Actually, we stayed there with my wife's father, who we went to the exact same place where you were. And well, we were at MD Anderson, which is nearby right there. But we stayed at that pretty sure it was a Newhouse that we stayed for a couple of months. It's a great service.

And that's why they talk about it back away. She's talking about starting a long transplant here in New Orleans. And I tell you, I said, what if it's got to be housing? Because you're going to get people from all over Louisiana.

Where are they going to go? So tell us a little bit about what, you know, what surprised you inside the walls? Like so I know you're preparing yourself. And I know you've got, you know, you wrote this wonderful book and preparing others.

What are the things before, even before you're transplant, I guess, and after that you completely caught you off guard that you thought you were prepared for and kind of really weren't? Well, I was in a situation where mentally I was pretty bad. I was on 10 leaders just sitting down, and I had a tank next to me. I got up.

So I was open to anything to get some relief. I'm a late sleeper. And I also go to sleep late. I'm up in 115 in the morning reading.

All of a sudden the door opens up. And there's walks in with a bag with 36. I'm empty vials in it. I look at her and puts that for her.

She says, this for you. You're leaving me any? She says, yeah, we'll leave you a little bit. So what's the full, you know, transplant?

She says, you get to translate it next couple of hours. It's that quick. Wow. You know, so they took all the blood, signed a whole bunch of papers, and then just waited a couple hours later, they wheeled me in.

And I wanted to find anything. They asked you, you know, why do you want the lung? I don't know why they asked that question, but they do. So my response was, I looked at my wife, we've been together 48 years.

I've not finished aggravating her yet. You have a great sense of humor. You have a great sense of humor. I think you're an overrooted for us.

Sure. You have a great sense of humor. And yeah, I mean, to have your wife there is support, but then to be worried about all the other things that she was probably carrying while you're going through your surgery. Yeah.

She's amazing. She's been my rock. She's absolutely amazing because as a caregiver, that's what people don't give enough credit to store of the caregivers. They so much that's got to be involved.

I mean, she could probably become a registered nurse if she chose. She's giving me infusion. She's giving me all kind of stuff. You know, it's working with me with trying to get a little pill straight, because right before you call it, I had my second breakfast.

First is food, second is 20 pills. So they take them out and take 30 pills a day. That's a lot. But, you know, that's just the nature of the beast.

And that's what I think a lot of people make a mistake with transplant. I think it's like changing a tire on your car. All right. I'm ready to go.

No, no, no, no. It's a life altering experience. You're going to be dealing with it the rest of your life, either medically with pills, complications spring off. Like I'm dealing with a lung infection right now.

You know, it doesn't seem to be that bad serious, but it's slowing me down. And because you're open, because you don't have an immune system, you got to stay away from crowds. If you go out to eat as best to pick a time, like around four or three, you're going to be able to stay away from young children because they carry a lot of stuff. So you really have to make a lot of changes and compromises in your life after a transplant.

And a lot of people aren't prepared for that. Especially with lung transplant. You know, it's all the other organs are closed right to the environment. And the lungs are the only ones that every bit of the environment impacts them.

So your infection, you breathe it in. You can, you know, like you mentioned, you know, I have a four-year-old, you know, they're little petri dishes all of a sudden, all of a sudden they sneeze or whatever. It's in the air and it affects you. Whereas, you know, a kidney transplant or a liver transplant or a heart transplant, it's all closed and you have a couple extra layers of protection there, right?

So that's very, like, you think about it on my end. Of course, I've been in the recovery, you know, industry for 22 years. And I think about some of these things, but like just what you mentioned, it kind of like, you know, made me pause right there going, having to eat at different times because you don't want to, you can't be around crowds. You just can't.

There is so much that has been said that I've never thought about an approach. Family. Yeah, folks. I used to approach families about donation.

And now I'm on the back end supporting families after donation. And to hear the recipient side, all the little details I've never thought about gives me a new face. I think you might have put that in your book description, but it does give a face to what the recipients are going through and their families. It's a bit, you know, I could see I was doing fantastic at surgery until it's past June.

And then I got pneumonia and I've been dealing with a variety, it might be the same one, lung infection since June, you know, I've been in the hospital five times, you know, because of not being able to breathe. I think I'm coming out of it now. I think if you get out what it is, it's MAC and my co-bacteria avium, you know, which is common everywhere. So I listen to all you can get it in the shower in the midst.

But if you're in an immune system, it's brutal. You know, and that's the thing you always got to remember, you're incredibly vulnerable. But going back to what you were saying is true because they're the friend of the liver transplant, they live 30 years. You're lucky to get five.

And it all depends. Yeah, but you can live much longer. You know, that's the thing. Oh, yes.

It's just five. You're good. I have a friend of mine that's on his sixth year right now. Wow.

I love that you're so raw and honest about it. And I feel like we could, you know, talk for days with you. I was just curious, you know, you come down with this sickness and they're telling you have to have a transplant. Were you familiar with donation at all?

We go out and we try to educate in the communities across the state and others. So was this a total shock to the system? It was a bit of a shock, anyway, because what happened was I went to see Lasky and he's a research phoneologist. So I was sitting in his office one time again.

I said, you do research. That's the work I had to deal with. I'll give you these regularly. You get me some new ones.

And he looked at me and said, these serious, I said, gee, I'm serious. Where am I going to go from here? Besides the box. He says, let's put you on a transplant.

And he says, you're going to Houston. And so that's okay. And that's how it happened. Now the surprise was, when I came out of surgery, I was expecting my chest to be popped open.

It wasn't. They went under my arm between my ribs. I had about an eight-inch incision. Okay.

They even asked the doctor, he's a big guy, about six foot two, six foot three. I said, I can't get those hands in there. He said, I'm good. I'm really sore.

I said, there's only one downside to it. He says, what's that? I can't look at a rapper ribs just saying what I used to. Oh.

I'm not going to be an author because all of your descriptions like I see it. I hear Bill in the story and describing on there with you. You know, so Ron, Libby suggested your book. It says that we reach out to you and about your book.

So she's my partner in family services or family aftercare. We had a climber though. Yeah, we all love Libby. And so how did that come about?

How did y'all meet? How did y'all meet? I called him there, and I just want to talk to somebody. Then I'm a cop.

I felt that this is a sign of the equation. You might be interested. I got to talk in a here and found out that Justin, which he had gone through with Justin. And we just had a nice conversation and as there's just like he mentioned earlier, I asked this, well, I'd like to put him in the book.

So she says really, she said everything written. She says, yeah, I said, send it to me. And she sent me that with a picture of him and since it's on Amazon and it's so published, I can add to it, edit it anytime I want. And that's what it's become a living book really because there's things happening.

I added to this part of the journey. I think we useful for other people and I thought it was great to have something from a donor perspective. So I put a chapter in there on Justin. That's how I met Libby.

She's a sweetheart. She really is. And she has taught us all of us so much about being a donor mom. I have to say, this is such a so timely here, Ron.

I received a call from one of my lifelong friends. He was the best man in my wedding and he called me. He said his dad has IPF, pulmonary fibrosis. And he's going to Houston because they're working him up for a transplant and of course he's nervous and his wife.

He's wife, Janie wanted to. So I'm actually going to be talking to them shortly after our call because they just had some questions and it's so funny that unfortunately, here we are having this conversation that's, you know, that I'll be basically repeating with him. So yeah, I'm definitely going to have them, you know, purchase your book because that's exactly what this is about. It's about helping others.

The blueprints on what's. Hey, I'm in call me. Give me my phone up. But you got it there.

I have a list of long patients that I call and keep track of on a regular basis. You kind of become bonded. Yeah. Yeah.

That community. I mean, you know, what's amazing is that you had a difficult challenge and you created an opportunity out of it to help others. Well, I felt like I couldn't go through this and not have a sense of purpose to it. That would be a reason.

So I said, well, maybe the reason is I can do something with my experience and maybe help others. I do right anyway. I've been writing a column for the local paper for the weekly for 37 years. So right.

It comes easy to us. So maybe just just track my course and maybe it'll be helpful. And it seems to have been. I've got a number of people read the book and get in contact with me and say it's been helpful and I can do real things like, for instance, kills.

You got right now, I've had a total of 46 different prescriptions. I'll take them all the time. But they're there. Can you put them in that little pill box?

You got to put a number on top of it. You can't even name it. They got five names anyway. So there's just little hints on things to do to make your life easier.

Haven't gone through it. A roadmap. Remember the old nachies? Yeah.

I'm running out the map quest. Yeah. So that's what this sounds like. We keep talking about the book.

It's called the quest for along a journey through transplant. Very easy to find on Amazon, Amazon.com. Check that out. The author is Ron Chapman.

Ron, we appreciate you letting us learn from you today. We appreciate your take on your on your transplant journey and how you're paying it forward. The thing to remember, especially if anybody's listening is going into it. Don't be worried about pain.

There's very little pain involved and it's a miracle. It's right after surgery to get you up and walking within two days, you don't have oxygen, which important because that was on oxygen for three years before. And to suddenly be able to walk without any tubes to tripping open, get caught on, thanks was a miracle. Wow.

So guys, get the book. If this is your journey, check it out. A quest for along Mr. Ron.

Thank you so much. I got an open invitation to join us here on the gift of life. Thank you, sir. It's my pleasure.

You're on the gift of life. We're taking a moment for mental health. Yeah, Laura, I can't wait to hear what Nyl's got to see. That's a fact.

Everyone's got knocked down at some point. Really? I know. Life comes at you, right?

And it's so fast these days. Yeah. And you said, I can't wait to hear what Nyl says. I was thinking, I can't eat her.

It's a mystery. So I can knock it back up with resilience. So I mean, we're talking about resilience. I was thinking, like, a lot of this I pull from just everyday experience.

And I'm like, what am I going to talk about? But I mean, stuff comes out as hard sometimes. Sometimes it comes in threes. Sometimes it's just one at a time.

And sometimes it's just a friend that we're supporting. But what do you do when life is hard? And resilience is about getting back up, but not only getting back up, but also growing from that. So learning from that.

What it isn't is disregarding how hard life is. And so I don't know that you have to jump back up. You might need some time to take it all in. For all before you walk.

Yeah. What are some things that you can do? We only get a few minutes to talk about this, but it's building your support system, your connections. Yeah.

That's what I was going to say helps me. Like, you know, you're trusted people. Like, let's really go to the thing happen today. It's like a bad thing.

I'm just kind of processing it right now. But then how do you get on the other side? So they can get you to preserve it. They can hold you up.

They can pull you up if you can't get up yourself. Finding a purpose. So kind of looking at this and reframing it and saying, how can I look at this differently? And then the last one embracing like healthy thoughts.

So there's so much to can you learn the skill? Yes. You're going to try to pack your little research. Whatever it is that you prepare for this, pack snacks.

But I mean, is it any different when we have a life journey? We know there's going to be difficulties. And so do we, how do we prepare for that? And these are just healthy ways to think about doing it.

It's just, again, building your support system and bracing healthy thoughts and finding some purpose in it, finding meaning out. But we have volunteers that do that all the time. Yeah. Yeah.

Which is pretty incredible. I learned from them. We're talking about our trusted people, our support system and just listening to ways that they process and cope and you know, get up every day. Yeah.

Some people said that was a win because I got out of bed today. Yeah. And amazing speaker today that shares his story about getting back up and how do you do life? What is one time that you feel like you got knocked down?

You don't have to say what it is, but what was something you did to pull yourself out of it? Because I think it's that social like us helping each other. We actually shared a personal thing happen, you know, to me this past couple of weeks and I compartmentalize a lot. You know, that's the way that's like my way of coping when I get knocked down.

Mm hmm. Like I have to compartmentalize it. And then I try to focus then on just, just positive things, whether it's, whether it's things, you know, I enjoy doing, it would happen to be my pup, you know, and in this situation it was like, what can I do positive with root with my dog so that you can enjoy, you know, so it's just trying to focus on the positives when it seems like everything else is being negative. See, that's so true.

And so now that's hard to find that positive. I focus like my kids. So sometimes, you know, we don't fit in with the in crowd, which is okay for me, older person, tougher for someone in school. Like we're gonna be sad about it right now.

We're gonna need some ice cream. We're gonna cry. We're gonna do all that. And tomorrow it's gonna be a new day and we're gonna figure out how we're gonna, you know, move past it kind of thing.

So easy for me to do with them when I'm in the situation is a little bit harder. Yeah. Yeah. And it's helpful, you know, hearing how other people do it makes it real.

So yeah, thank y'all. I like it. You have a topic you'd like us to cover here on the Gifted Life, email us at info at the Gifted Life Bedwork. In every episode of the Gifted Life, we honor a hero.

Today's hero is Asher Shavers. And we learn about Asher from his family. Asher was a witty and compassionate young man. He loved to learn about animals, but especially about birds.

When Asher received his driver's license and was asked to be an organ donor, his response was, yes, what am I going to do with them? We know he would be proud to have helped others with his gift. He was diagnosed with high functioning autism at a young age and struggled to make sense of the world. His heart was always to be compassionate towards others and want to help when he felt there was a need.

His unexpected death has left a whole in his dad's heart, mom's heart, and sister's heart. But his loss has also felt in this world. Asher would want people to learn from him to accept people for who they are and to be compassionate in all situations. We pause and say thank you to Asher Shavers for the gift of life.

That's going to do it for episode 251 of the Gifted Life Podcast. Thanks for listening and remember you can register as an organ, eye, and tissue donor anytime, register me.org. Tell your friends. Special thanks to Ron Chapman for coming on, talking about his book and for him just to write the book and to be thinking about others who are going through that journey who are uncertainty, you know, you talk about getting knocked down and in the presence of parents, he is that, right?

He wrote about it and of course sharing that for the people who are going to be walking in the same path soon. Yeah, giving people some hope and education. Yeah, you can hear Ron's episode and many more on our website, thegiftedlife.org. Help us spread the word.

Listen there and find links to listen on Apple Podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora, or wherever you listen to podcast. If you listen on Apple Podcast, please leave us at five star rating. It really helps others to find us. On social like our page on Facebook, please the Gifted Life Podcast.

You can also follow us on Instagram at Gifted Life Pod. Thanks for spending some time with us guys. Remember to go out and do something you would normally do to help us make life happen. Until next time.

This is a production of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, or LOPA. The Gifted Life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Buttrow, and Malashwaab, producer, Ishelan Caraway. And we are recorded, engineered and mixed in our Covington, Louisiana Studio by Troy Perez.