The Test Leave

I have spent the past week packing, purging, wiping and vacuuming (the carpet & the storage bags - they're like Spanx for your bedding, clothes and towels - squishing huge piles into skinny packages for loading in the car).

Today we are leaving our condo - the place we have called home for the past 390 days. A place of...

• temporary residence, but home nonetheless
• meeting new neighbours (thanks for everything Karin, Gord & George) 
• exploring a new environment and all it has to offer (thank you Village)
• walking everywhere (thank you Toronto for close proximity and outrageous parking fees)
• meeting new friends (thank you Treadmill Room)
• catching up with long-time friends (thank you all for visits!)
• weekly yoga (thank you Sylvia)
• Breathless Buddies monthly Game ON! socials (thank you Celebrity Place for a facility for hosting these wonderful times)
• depending on strangers (thank you Omar for oxygen; Sam for access & assistance; Parves & Ulke for being the extraordinary concierges that you are - and in the process becoming our friends)
• waiting for transplant (thank you lung team of TGH!)
• family - thanks for all the visit from our children, brother, sisters, parents, nephews and niece
• watching Carman's (and our Breathless Buddies) health steadily decline
• excitement, as each of our Breathless Buddies "got the call"
• incredible grief and sadness at the loss of 3 of our Breathless Buddies (we miss you dearly Heather, Ibrahim & Ruth)
• Getting the Call! for Carman to receive the most precious gift of new lungs
• recovering from surgery
• adventure - testing out the new lungs by walking around the 'hood and to & from the hospital
• fears - at a mysterious cough that nobody can explain
• joy - the cough has gone
• a busy calendar - 4 days a week for routine appointments following surgery has made the time fly by
• hope - for what lies ahead

It has been a strange mix of joys, sadness, fear and courage - this process of packing up and preparing for the next step. To start our new journey away from the hospital community, to be self reliant in the hopes that nothing "goes wrong"- our friends who have left have all experienced what I call "the ice flow effect"...set adrift for a few months, until the next round of appointments... to be in an environment where you aren't surrounded and supported by people who know your story.

We leave shortly on Carman's longest trip yet with his new lungs - headed to Ottawa for the Canada Day weekend. From there we'll head west again for a visit with his brother, sister-in-law & nephew in Peterborough. From there, further west and back to where we started, in London for a few weeks.

We'll be back to Toronto for the 6 month assessment in August, and will then begin our long journey home to New Brunswick - with stops along the way to visit our Breathless Buddies, of course!

Our internet will be intermittent over the next several weeks, but as I'm able I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, thank you for following us - your support has held us up when we couldn't stand alone. Bless you all!

Pamela & Carman

02Jun13 - St. Jacobs, ON
on a visit with Ann & Brian