As many of you know, Rob received a life-saving double lung transplant in 2020 at the Cleveland Clinic after battling familial pulmonary hypertension for 13 years. There were many bumps in the road along the way, which unfortunately have done permanent damage to Rob's lungs over time. Over the last 6 months, he has lost more than 70% of his lung function and tests show his breathing is only at 17% of normal predicted. After multiple trips back and forth to the Cleveland Clinic this year, we have recently been told he has a type of chronic rejection called Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome (B.O.S.). There is no cure for this, and the only treatment will be for him to undergo another double lung transplant. This was not the news we wanted to hear, as it seems like we have just gotten through the first transplant journey and now we've got to do it all again.

Because of the lung scarring, Rob can't breathe effectively, and air gets trapped in his lungs; this causes him to get very short of breath with basically any activity. The doctors have said oxygen would be of no benefit, so there is really no means of relief.

There are many obstacles to come, but we have decided to try this again with hopes of a better quality of life next time around.

Because he's been sick since the beginning of the year, Rob was only able to work sporadically up until May, at which time he had to stop working altogether. We are working on getting disability back, but we all know how long that can take. Once Rob gets "the call", the medical flight from Maine to the Cleveland Clinic is approximately $10k and not covered by our health insurance. We have been told by the transplant team that we should have about $25,000 in savings to cover not only medical bills, but the costs related to being required to temporarily relocate to Cleveland after the surgery (and possibly before, if he continues to quickly decline), while continuing to maintain our home in Maine.

While second (and even third) transplants are not uncommon, there will be a lot of differences this time and it may be much harder to find a match. We are grateful for the gift of the last 5 years and neither of us is ready to throw in the towel yet. We are hoping for a miracle.