Celebrating My 2 Year Transplant-iversary

The Commercial Appeal, Aug 25, 2014

Mary Rice...An online transplant buddy posted  this quick clip about Mary Rice. I was overwhelmed with emotion. I felt the moisture on my face as I teared up, the glare from the monitor warming my now flush cheeks. I wiped them away, puzzled at myself.

Mary Rice was 94 years old when she died. She was diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes at age 9 in 1929, only 6 years after the first human was treated with insulin. She lived for 85 years with a debilitating chronic illness. 

85 years? I am amazed, impressed, inspired.

I lived for 22 years with diabetes.
85 years was incomprehensible. Until now.

Not just impressed, I am grateful.
I am grateful to know she existed, she persevered, she triumphed.
I am grateful that she's real.
That she's not a pipe dream that doctors allude to when you ask, desperate for reassurance, "So, what's my life expectancy?"

Other transplant recipients commented on Mary's inspiring life. Amid comments from other members, there was one that struck me. Another kidney pancreas recipient, a woman whose name I didn't recognize, praised Mary Rice as an inspiration, but said she herself didn't feel like one.

This also festered in my brain as I settled back in the chair. Now the monitor was a spotlight, forcing my inner devil's advocate to prove her wrong.

Internally, I echoed her thoughts. I felt them.

Externally, I disputed her claim, spouting off reasons, monologuing with my hands into the light. You, self-doubting commenter, are inspirational.

You're strong
and resilient
and resourceful
and motivated
and alive
and an example for every person battling chronic illness.

None of these reasons take my knowing the woman at all. I just know, because I've done what she has, and I'm surviving. And tomorrow brings more surviving.  There will never be a day where we can coast and just know that everything will be fine.  There will always be a pending blood test, an unexpected tenderness in your abdomen, a cold sweat when you hear that your co-worker has the flu, an exhilarating annual checkup when everything(YES, EVERYTHING) comes back within normal range.

And these types of battles are not for the weak.
These types of battles can even break the strong.
That's why we are an inspiration.

We are here and alive and looking forward to tomorrow and whatever it may bring.
We are an inspiration to everyone who has suffered diabetes and kidney failure, and to people with chronic disease of all kinds.

By our survival alone.

As of today: (http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/)

123,855 people need a life-saving organ transplant. Every day this number grows.

Becoming an organ donor can save up to 8 lives.
Becoming a voice, sharing your story,  can affect infinite amounts of people. Or maybe just one scared, sick woman who can't imagine being a survivor. 

I want every person with diabetes and end stage renal disease to know I, a scared, sick woman who couldn't imagine being a survivor, made it.
That they are not forging out alone into an unknown world where no one has been before.
There are survivors, there are success stories, there is inspiration.
There is me. 

So, if you're a transplant survivor and you stumble or doubt or wonder if the next challenge on the horizon is the one that's too much for you, don't forget who you are, where you've been and what it all means.

                      My name is Michelle Buscema.
Today, October 4, 2014, is my 2 year transplant-iversary. 
                      This is how I’m celebrating.
             As of today: 17,956 page views to my blog.
                                    Join me.
                 Speak up. Share. Be the inspiration.