Co. Wexford dairy farmer, Ciarán McDonald, and I share one thing in common – we owe our lives to the wonders of modern medicine and surgery and the highly skilled doctors, who make it all happen.
In his case, the issue at hand was the need for a double lung transplant, which Agriland outlined recently.
With me, the problem was a highly infected aneurysm in my abdominal aorta, requiring 12” of ‘new tubing’ in the affected area.
The other common theme to our lives is the fact that Ciarán and I both faced up to our health-related challenges back in 2018.
So what’s the take-home message from all of this? In my case, it’s a very simple one – every day is worth living to the full.
It’s a pity, though, that it took me almost six decades to work this out.
Ignoring the problem
Prior to my diagnosis, I had sat around the house in total agony for four months; sleep was impossible, I had hot sweats on the hour, every hour; I couldn’t walk and had lost all interest in eating.
Over a period of weeks I lost stones in weight. Everyone around me knew that I wasn’t well.
But would I go to the doctor? No way… until I could take the pain and discomfort no more.
I was being a typical man, trying to kid myself that one day I would wake up and everything would be alright.
Thankfully, the doctors diagnosed the problem just in time. Had I waited any longer, the prognosis would not have been good.
I make these points because so many men neglect their health, until it is too late. In my own case, I had previously received a notification, confirming my eligibility for a ‘routine’ aneurysm scan.
Unfortunately, the invitation was not acted upon.
Hope with modern medicine
As it turned out, I was lucky. And it is so invigorating to know that so many other people have been given a second chance to enjoy life. Ciarán McDonald is one such person.
His story is truly uplifting. Its telling involves so many people and organisations – the hospitals, the doctors, the nurses, the organ donor organisations and, of course, the actual donor of the lungs that Ciarán now relies on.
In a world where the news agenda is consumed with wars, pending natural disasters and such like, it is tremendous to realise that there is also a lot of good taking place at the same time.