The two women recently traveled to Nashville so Oglethorpe could be evaluated for a lung transplant. Here is the story of their journey.

I’m Carolyn Oglethorpe. I live in Richmond, Kentucky. I was told in 1991 that there was a spot of emphysema on my lung. And I was advised then to quit smoking and I continued for four more years. I’d quit three weeks, six weeks. And I always looked for a reason to go back, I guess. It would rain. The dog would get wet, or anything. You are so addicted to that nicotine that you just keep searching for an excuse to justify yourself to smoke you would, you know, it’s horrible. You just continually get the coughing. It got worse.

I lived in a house that had stairs, so by the time I’d get to the top of those stairs I’d be just wanting to pass out. Or I’d feel like I was just going to fall over. And running a vacuum, it just got hard to do, and now it’s something I can almost not do.

I asked the doctor about the transplant program. He did not tell me that that was what I needed to do. He did agree that he felt that was the best thing for me to do.

I’m Janet Costilow and I live in Berea, Kentucky. I had a lung transplant September 28, 1999.

I was 40 years-old when I was diagnosed with emphysema. It’s pure hell. It’s like, if you would close off your nose and maybe put a cocktail straw in your mouth and try to breathe through that cocktail straw and at the same time run a race. If you can imagine how short of breath you would get. Just to move, that’s the way it was. I’ve seen times when I could not stand up long enough to brush my teeth and wash my face. I would have to sit down and rest in between. Showering was the worst thing in the world. My husband would have to sit in the bedroom while I showered. He didn’t dare leave me alone. Everything I did except talk was a struggle. And the doctor said if ever I quit talking he would really worry about me then. I smoked from the time I was 15 until I was about 50.

Since [Carolyn] first started talking about transplant, actually, I’ve told her the good with the bad and the bad with the good. I’ve left nothing out. Some of the good is, hey, I can breathe. I can walk. I can do whatever I want to do. The bad is, one out of 10 people die during surgery. There’s a lot of medications to contend with; side effects from medication; rejection. I have never had any rejection, knock on wood. I just hope she gets as lucky as I have been.

She was talking about possibly needing a transplant and actually not really having anyone to be her support person because you have to have someone with you after you’re transplanted, twenty-four hours a day, and I said, Carolyn, I’ll go with you. I’ll do it because I have received so much from society myself. I feel you can’t just keep taking and talking and not give anything back. Besides her being a very dear friend, this is something I wanted to do for her.

Monday, March 31
Carolyn and Janet arrive at Vanderbilt Medical Center. While Janet parks the car, Carolyn picks up her schedule for the day. A staff member gives her instructions on what to do with the packet of information she’s just received.

"I am nervous I’m not going to deny it," says Oglethorpe. "It’s stressful. I’m dreading the sticks. If they can stick me once and get it then I’m fine. But sometimes they have to stick, stick, stick, stick."

Fortunately, the person drawing Carolyn’s blood had good aim. She only had to "stick" Carolyn once. Seventeen vials of blood are drawn from Carolyn’s left arm.

After having her blood drawn, the next stop for Carolyn is the office of the lung transplant coordinator who outlines the risks associated with a lung transplant.

"It is a major surgical procedure," the coordinator tells Oglethorpe. "There's a 10-percent mortality rate with the surgery alone. There are post-surgical complications as well, such as kidney failure, prolonged mechanical ventilation and things like that."

At the end of a very busy day, Carolyn has been poked and prodded and both ladies are exhausted. Instead of venturing from their Nashville hotel for dinner, they heat a can of beef stew in the microwave in their room.

Tuesday, April 1
The day is booked with one test after another for Carolyn: a blood gas test, a pulmonary function test, a bone density test, a chest x-ray, a scan of her arterial system, and a high-resolution chest cat-scan. Carolyn laughs that they even checked her teeth!

Reflecting back on her own transplant, Jan remarks how grateful she is to her husband for going through all the tests with her prior to her transplant in 1999. "He did not want me out of his site, even for a minute. He was so wonderful. I could not have done anything without him, I was so bad."

Wednesday, April 2
The primary event of today is a psychological screening. Carolyn's daughters drove down from Richmond to meet with the doctors. As it turns out they weren't required to attend but they did meet with the psychologist after all.

Since it was a short day, Carolyn and Jan went to a local mall for a bit of shopping (a pastime they both admit to enjoying) and then had dinner at Cracker Barrel.

Thursday, April 3
Carolyn is to meet with the transplant surgeon today to discuss the procedure.

"My emotions are still running about the same," Carolyn explains. "Sometimes I’m up. Sometimes I’m down over it. Can’t help but wonder if I’m doing the right thing. When I see someone who’s doing really well with transplant then I get real excited. Then when I hear the stories of the people who don’t do so well, that puts doubts in my mind."

But there is a complication. The surgeon tells Carolyn she has a spot on one of her lungs and there is concern it could be cancer. "Carolyn is very, very upset," Jan says. "I wish they had waited until after her heart catheterization tomorrow to tell her about the spot, but they didn’t do it."

Scheduling difficulties prevent Carolyn from having further tests to determine the nature of the spot. She will have to wait until she returns to Kentucky before she can get a PET-scan to see if she indeed has lung cancer.

Friday, April 4
This is the final day of testing at the Vanderbilt Medical Center, but it's the test that Carolyn has most dreaded: the heart catheterization. "I miss my coffee this morning. I’m not allowed to eat. And once I have the test over with, I have to lay four to five hours flat on my back. I really, really, really dread that."

Fortunately, the test goes well and and no blockages are found. Jan and Carolyn spend the evening preparing for the nearly four hour drive home on Saturday.

Back in Richmond, Carolyn has her PET-scan to check the spot on her lung. Waiting for the results proves to be a very anxious time for her.

"It’s been a big worry ever since the doctor told me that there’s a possibility [of cancer]," Carolyn explains. "I have prayed about it, and I have thought about it and then I prayed some more. It’s really a very scary feeling when they tell you there’s a possibility you have cancer in your lungs. I will get the results of my test tomorrow or the next day."

"This is constantly a struggle living with this disease. Unless you have personally had this disease, you cannot understand the fears, the dreads, the doubts and the feelings that go with it."

Carolyn adds a cautionary note about tobacco use. "I would encourage anyone who smokes, to quit smoking. I realize cigarettes are addictive, and people say, 'Oh, I can’t quit.' Let me tell you, once you get emphysema as bad as I have emphysema you will quit smoking one way or the other."

Nearly a week after she returned home, Carolyn gets some welcome news. "The PET test showed no sign of malignancy in my lung," she exclaims. "I am on cloud nine. I was laughing and crying and I was so excited. The first thing I did was call my parents and told them because they were really worried. Then I called my children and told them."

"This past week has been somewhat of a stressful week, trust me, as something that people just don’t understand until they’re there."

After the joy of learning that she did not have lung cancer, Oglethorpe suffered another setback. On April 18, the transplant coordinator at Vanderbilt told Oglethorpe that she could not be listed for a donor lung. The tests had revealed the presence of certain antibodies in her blood that would make a donor match next to impossible.

Oglethorpe is trying to remain upbeat saying not everyone does as well as her friend Jan Costilow after a transplant. “I could die on the operating table,” Oglethorpe says. “I’d rather live out the life I have now.”