Barb

Birth Date
8/15/55

Gender
Female

Nationality
American

Alpha type
lung

Alpha level
30mg/dl

Alpha gene
ZZ

Diagnosed
June 2001

Last FEV1
15%

Treatment
inhaler, prolastin,
nebulizer, O2

Siblings
5

Children
1

Grandchildren
1

Barb Mayhew

bmayhew2002@yahoo.com

I live in Aledo, IL

I work as an Assistant Editor at a weekly newspaper.

My favorite color is Purple

I enjoy target shooting, photography, and surfing the net.

Click here to see my personal website.

10/18/2002 I was diagnosed in June 2001 after a hard breathing day. I went to a local hospital to have a breathing treatment for my asthma. While there they did a very poor CT scan. After a six hour wait in the waiting room, they decided that I needed to be transported by ambulance to a bigger hospital in Peoria, Il. The second day there I was tested for Alpha 1 with positive results.

In August of 2001, I had a PFT that showed 17 percent FEV1 and my pulmonary doctor started the wheels turning to receive Prolastin and to be evaluated for lung TX. In

November 2001, I had my first Prolastin treatment. I have one every 7 to 10 days.

In January 2002, I went to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis and was listed for a double lung TX.

In March 2002, I moved in with my mother, and had to take disability at work to keep my insurance (Hopefully the TX will take place while I still have it, sure would make things easier).

I have been spending a lot of time with my granddaughter, Madison, who is three, but acts like she is 20. Also I went dove hunting this fall and got three of them. I still love surfing the net, chatting in the alpha chat room and the lung club chat room.

I am in the process of raising funds for my upcoming bilateral lung transplant. I am selling raffle tickets on a chance to win an afghan or a quarter of a beef. That drawing will be held Dec. 14th of this year. I am also in the process of putting a cookbook together for another fundraiser and am still accepting recipes for that. My lung function is still at 15% but I actually feel better now than I did a year ago or even earlier this year. I am a firm believer on exercise and proper rest, maintenance, diet, etc.

I am looking forward to chatting and e-mailing people that have this dreadful disease. It is a great thing to know that I am not facing this alone and that there are people out there in similar type situations.

Breathe well everybody and God bless us all.

Barb

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