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Holiday happiness for mum after operation

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A mum is planning a trip to Disneyland with her daughter to mark the first anniversary of a life-saving operation.

This time last year Amy Baker was in Papworth Hospital, in Cambridgeshire, recovering from a double lung transplant.

The 26-year-old, who was born with cystic fibrosis had been waiting for more than two years for the operation.

Amy, from Thorpe Astley, now has to take a cocktail of drugs each day but it is a far cry from having to have extra oxygen 24 hours a day.

She said: "There have been ups and downs during the year.

"It was quite scary coming home from hospital and it was a little difficult adjusting to all the medication.

"I have to take what seems about 100 tablets a day, including antibiotics and anti-rejection drugs to keep everything going, but it is just part of my life now.

"It was also difficult to maintain how much I did. I would go shopping and then feel awful.

"I have had to learn not to over do it.

"Now I am going to the gym three times a week and it is nice to be able to just do things randomly.

"Before the operation I couldn't plan anything because I never knew how I was going to be feeling.

"Another big change was how quiet the house was because there was no longer the noise of the oxygen supply which I relied on."

One of the things she is also looking forward to is see her daughter, Bella Baker-Eames, four, start school in September.

Amy, who feared this was a dream too far, said: "We are going to buy her school uniform.

"But before that, in a few weeks, we are going to Disneyland Paris to mark the first anniversary of my transplant.

"It is so nice being able to do all sorts of different things with Bella."

Amy was able to lead a relatively normal life until she caught pneumonia when she was 10.

She was in and out of hospital with constant infections and, in 2009, doctors said her lungs were so damaged she would need a transplant to survive.

There were three false alarms when the transplant had to be called off because of problems with the donor organs.

The fourth call came in the early hours of April 27 last year.

Amy said: "I was lucky. I had been in hospital with a temperature but had just recovered when the call came.

"I was in intensive care for two days after the operation but on the third day I managed to sit up and by the fifth I was on the gym bike.

"I knew if I didn't get moving it would be harder in the long run."

She has also written a thank you to be passed to the donor's family.

Amy said: "I wrote at Christmas but I haven't had heard anything back yet."

Holiday happiness for mum after operation


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