The Gift Of Life

The topic I'm going to talk about may not be something that everyone agrees with and I respect their decision as I hope they respect mine and this story.

The gift of life of Organ Donation.

When I was younger, I didn't sign my organ donation card.  I had a hard enough time thinking about my death let alone them taking a part of me.
Eventually I came around and realized what good I would be doing for someone and have been listed as an organ donor ever since on my driver's licence and my husband and family know of my wishes.

I also have a very personal belief in becoming an organ donor.  My mom is a recipient of organ donation which saved and has prolonged her life.

My mom was a 2pack a day smoker for 35 years.  Combine that with Asthma and you get a young person with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) also known as Emphysema.
In 2001 my mom was admitted to hospital twice when her body finally told her enough is enough and a doctor told her she was going to die now if she didn't stop smoking.  She quit to us, but still smoked at work.  I understand how hard it is to quit an addiction, and while my mom thinks that we didn't know about her still smoking, we knew.  No amount of guilt, fighting, or 'intervention' would stop her.  Until it got so bad that one day driving home from work (she worked in downtown Toronto and drove 1.5hrs to get home) she had an asthma attack so bad by the time she got home all she could do it lean on the horn until my dad and I came running.  She once again was admitted to the hospital, this time with pneumonia.

My mom finally realized that things were never going to be the same.  She never returned to work after this episode because she couldn't chance having another attack.  It was also at this time she learned how bad things really were.  Her Respirologist was very surprised when my mom first walked into his office.  He was expecting a woman in her 70s to walk in, not a 48yr old woman.  She had 18% lung function.  They tried everything with medications, inhalers, therapy, to try and improve the function of her lungs.  Nothing worked.  In fact, it was going to get worse.  By July 2006 my mom was put on oxygen.  She couldn't shower standing up, she couldn't go downstairs to laundry, cook family meals, enjoy a hot summers day, or a cold winter's night and she was permanently attached to a hose pumping oxygen from a concentrator or canister when out.

I always knew that a transplant was the only solution if I were ever going to get my mom back, but it scared me.  I can't even imagine what my mom had to go through to make the decision to go forward.  In fact, talk of a transplant was brought up in 2002.  In 2009, my mom decided to go forward with it.

She had to first qualify to be on the 'list'. At Toronto General Hospital, they did many tests, interviews, weight loss and continuous work outs at the hospital 3 times a week.  In October 2009 she officially was on the 'list'.  My mom has Type O+ blood which means she can only receive donor lungs from a Type O+ donor.  Making her chances lower of receiving a donor quickly or at all.

A miracle did happen though.  On April 19, she got the call.  She was told "We have lungs for you!"  I don't know what my mom thought.  I know what I thought when I heard.  Oh My God.  I am 10 hours away, and I can't get home and all I know is that my mom is going into surgery and I am not there.

That was probably the longest night of mine, my brother's and my dad's life.  I got the call at about 10:30am the next morning.  She was out of surgery and doing well. 

My mom had successfully had a Double Lung Transplant and was on her way to recovery and a new life.

My mom had a pretty easy recovery compared to others who have had this procedure (other than a bowel issue....mom liked to push the pain button lol).

It has been over 2 years since my mom had her transplant and other than some other complications due to the medications she has to take, she is doing amazing and I have my mom around to do things that she hasn't been able to do for years.

This procedure was done all at Toronto General Hospital and some of you who watch Ellen may be familiar with Hélène Campbell, a young woman from Ottawa, Ontario who underwent this surgery not too long ago.  The team that did Hélène's surgery is the same team who did my mom.

I am grateful to the person who took the time to become a donor, and to their family for honouring their wish. 

This is why I am a registered organ donor and I urge you to become one as well.  If you live in Ontario you can do it by simply going to beadonor.ca or at your local DMV.

Has It Been That Long???

Whoops!  Guess blogging kind of went the wayside since J came home :P

J has been off of work since he got home on May 21 but will be going back to work tomorrow.  I have been working as I normally have after spending a few das off with J.

Admission time: We've spent quite a bit of money since he got home.  But all of it has been on items that we needed for the home.  ALL OF IT.  And I'm not worried or sorry for spending it.
Some of it has gone on the credit cards, but as I stated before, we are not here to be debt free forever, but to be responsible with the debt.  We have everything that we need for now for the home.  We purchased a king size bed, kitchen table (amish made so all wood and well made), a bedroom set (headboard, 2 nightstands, and chest - again all amish made so all wood and well made...won't have to buy another set for a LONG time), we are having a storm door installed, we purchased a washer/dryer (which wasn't included in the purchase of the home), chest freezer and a new grill. Everything else were little odds and ends.  We will be good for now, except for maybe a new kitchen faucet.  I swear, I don't understand how a house can only be 6 years old, yet the faucet be horribly horribly wrong (and by that I mean, dirty, it barely turns side to side and the pull out doesn't go back in easily).  *sigh* oh well, at least I get to pick the one I want instead hee hee.  I may do that this week so that my dad and J can install it. MAYBE.  My dad is horrible to work with lol.

Otherwise, things have been going well.  Work has been busy as anything, which is exhausting, and frustrating to say the least.  People really are clueless when it comes to their money and they love blaming us/the person they are talking to.

My parents are coming this week and will be staying with us, which is nice since we actually have a guest suite that they can stay in.  I get my parents to stay here (I love to host) and they get to save money by not having to stay in a hotel.
The only thing....this house looks like a disaster area.  We are still unpacking, and when J got home and his boxes arrived, everything ended up everywhere lol.

But because this is a 'personal finance' blog here are some numbers for you.
Our mortgage is below $260,000!!! lol
Purchase price was $264,000.  $2000 was from closing costs (which was originally our escrow and ended up paying for the washer/dryer), and we have made 3 full payments (Principal, Interest, Taxes) and I have made a total of $100 in additional principal to it as well. This makes out next mortgage payment not due until August 1 now :)
THIS is what I wanted.  I didn't want to be paying the mortgage for THAT month with the paycheck before in case something came up.  Now that we are ahead, if something were to happen (like payroll issue, check card# stolen) we have that extra month before the payment is due.

I'll be back to normal blogging here soon. We'll have updates on the taxes which we still have to file. That will be a large return.

Hope you all have a great week! :)

Checking In

Not much been going on, especially on the debt payment, just waiting for J's expense report to hit his account, which should be this week sometime. It's also Payday this week for both of us. This is going to be my first paycheck with my pay raise in it. I want to see what it will be, then I may start signing up for some overtime. I could, in theory get another week or more in pay just in overtime if I really want to, but it can burn me out some days (really, just don't like talking to people on the phone that much!)

This week is also the start of my new shift and my new position. I don't actually have to be there until 4pm. I hope this shift inspires me to actually do things during the day (cleaning, laundry, move things to a storage facility, etc).

My parents came to visit this weekend, and I did spend a bit of money, mainly on things that we need and I bought dinner for them. They always treat J and I so I think they deserve to be treated as well! It was all paid with cash, so that's an accomplishment right there for me :)

I hope everyone's week is great! :)

Lazy Days

I really wish the title of this post was Really Productive Days! But, alas it has not been as productive as I had hoped it would be. My parents will be coming to visit in a few weeks, and I would like to have my place looking somewhat decent. Not to mention, that when I gave our June rent check yesterday I was told that they are looking at refinancing since rates are so low. So, that will mean an assessment. Just to give me a heads up. *sigh* I hate cleaning, and we have so much stuff that this place is bursting.

I'm going to have to look into getting offsite storage for the things that we don't really need to keep here.

On a good note, today was another no spend day, so that's 6 for the month. Only 4 more to go meet my goal.
Tomorrow on the other hand, will be a spend day. Need to go and get J some socks. And we're not talking about your run of the mill Walmart Hanes socks. He needs these 1-pair $14 socks. I married a diva. I'll get them because I know they make him comfortable when wearing uncomfortable military style boots all day.

So, another Saturday has come and gone. I have a cat lazily dreaming beside me, watching NASCAR and wishing that we could get all of our credit cards paid off so that J can come home.

Tory is the Grey cat beside me right now

Almost Payday and Promotion

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was promoted to a new position at work. I cannot say where I work, but I am in the financial industry and it's a pretty large credit union (take what you want from that :P) I work in the call center and take credit card and loan applications. What better motivation to get rid of our debt! It's sad really sometimes and can be hard to tell people they have been declined.

Christmas plans are going....ok. My MIL is coming this weekend and it's going to be a mad scramble to get everything ready for her, but it will be worth it. J hasn't spent Christmas with his mom in years. J still has shopping to do for me, and we have to shop for his mom, plus stockings but everything is budgeted for and we'll be ok.

I did have a scare yesterday. Our electric bill. $259!!! I was so worried that I would have to cut our Christmas budget down, knowing that it wasn't great to begin with, but the good news is that we can pay it on time and not have to cut anything! I'm pretty proud of that :)

Well, J just came downstairs, and declared it is snowing out. YAY! Being Canadian I LOVE when it snows. I hope it stays for Christmas, or that we get even more ;)