Lung transplant allows mom to see her kids grow up
A young mother who prayed for her kids to remember her now celebrates 13 years post-transplant
A baby’s first steps, their first day of school, holidays, graduations, sporting events, weddings. The list goes on and on of all the milestones parents hope to see in their children’s lives. But for Melanie Putnam, that list was much shorter 13 years ago.
“I remember praying, ‘God, just please let me live long enough to see my kids finish elementary school,’” Putnam says. “I just wanted them to be old enough to remember me and have memories of me at school functions and family events.”
At the time, Putnam was hospitalized at University of Iowa Health Care, unable to leave the hospital, tethered to oxygen with tubes coming out of her chest that were required to keep her lungs inflated. She was living a “hopeless life I never thought I could escape from” as she waited for a lung transplant.
Looking back now, Putnam feels an immense sense of gratitude for overcoming the ordeal and the memories she’s made from seeing her oldest start college to an amazing vacation this fall. She knows she wouldn’t be here without the love of her husband, her sons, and a world-class care team at UI Health Care.
Facing a new reality
When Putnam was pregnant with her youngest son, she was diagnosed with lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a progressive disease that can cause lung function to decline over time. Fortunately, UI Health Care has specialists experienced with treating rare lung diseases, earning the health system recognition from the LAM Foundation as a LAM clinic.
“At first, I thought maybe it was asthma or something,” Putnam says. “It turned out I had this rare lung disease, and it basically was putting holes into my lungs.”
A normal cold landed her in the hospital with respiratory failure and she was faced with a new reality: her lungs had run their course. While the transplant team searched for a set of lungs, Putnam wrestled with some particularly difficult emotions. She remembers one particularly hard conversation with her husband, afraid their two boys would only remember her with all the tubes and wires necessary to keep her alive.
“I just told him, ‘I don't want to see the kids again. They're small. They just want their mom to come home,’” she recalls. “And I just said to him the day before, ‘I just don't want to live anymore if I have to go another day like this.’”
Thankfully, fate intervened, and a set of lungs became available for Putnam. UI Health Care’s lung transplant team—known for its world-class care and exceptional survival rates—quickly prepped Putnam for surgery, which was a huge success. Thirteen years later, she’s still coming to the same care team with their incredible expertise.
“Melanie was fortunate to have access to what was at the time a cutting-edge investigational therapy for LAM. This stabilized her disease for a number of years. Then when her disease flared, she was immediately referred to us for a lung transplant,” says Julia Klesney-Tait, MD, PhD, a pulmonologist with UI Health Care who continues to treat Putnam.
Putnam is monitored closely by the team at UI Health Care to keep an eye on her lung function and other complications that can arise from a rare disease.
“If I'm ever sick, they're on it. They just do everything for me. And I feel very comfortable reaching out to them,” she says. “So, they're like a family. The transplant team is amazing.”
“Our team is focused on doing everything we can to help our patients live long and healthy post-transplant lives. UI Health Care has one of the best long-term survivals in the country," says Klesney-Tait. "These outcomes start in the operating room with expertise of our cardiothoracic surgical team, led by Dr. Kal Parekh since 2007, and continue with post-transplant care that our patients receive from the medical teams, nurse coordinators, pharmacists, and social workers.”
A state of gratitude
Even though she is thirteen years post transplant, Putnam never wastes a moment. She volunteers for different community programs, attends every sport event for her sons, and just recently returned from a getaway vacation for just her and her husband. Because of her health journey, Putnam knows she holds onto her memories fiercely.
“I’m the crazy camera mom,” she says. “I never want to miss a memory.”
After Putnam recovered from her transplant, one of the highlights was walking her oldest son into his first day of kindergarten, hand in hand with a smile on both their faces. It was a picture-perfect moment that was almost taken from her.
“The coolest part was he was just so proud that his mom was there,” she says. “And he would always tell me, ‘Mom, you look so pretty without your tubes in your nose.’ He just was so proud.”
With the love of her family and care she received at UI Health Care, Putnam gained a lifetime of joyful moments with her family. From that first day at kindergarten to watching her oldest start college this year and her youngest start his junior year of high school, Putnam has chronicled her journey in a blog, crediting her love of life to her family and the amazing team at UI Health Care.
“I literally feel like I live in a state of gratitude all the time that, it's weird to say, but I don't think I ever would've been able to live this way if I hadn't experienced what I've experienced,” Putnam says. “And with a lung transplant, you don't expect to live forever, but I’m grateful for every moment that transplant has given me.”
Photo credit on professional images: Love Mo Photography