TLD - 01 - Trapper's Homestead
Channel: Explore The Lore
Date: 2018-03-19

In the long dark, we are constantly reminded our avatar is breathing by the misty air that forms in front of us on the screen. Most of us take breathing for granted. However there are some who do not.

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (lim-FAN-je-o-LI-o-MI-o-ma-TO-sis) is a rare lung disease that usually strikes women during the prime of their lives. Known as LAM for short, this disease is characterized by an abnormal growth of smooth muscle cells, especially in the lungs, lymphatic system and kidneys.

When you have LAM, you are handed a death sentence. There is no cure, and the only treatments are experimental and only limit the disease's progression. Typically your lungs fill up with cysts. You eventually suffocate as you lack the surface area to properly exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen. Your lungs might tear open and air could leak into your chest cavity causing a heart attack, or maybe it's the reverse and you merely drown in your own blood. 

Eventually the only option is a lung transplant.

If one lives long enough, there will come a point in everyone's life when gold loses it's luster, diamonds cease to sparkle, and the material becomes meaningless. For me, my single most precious commodity is TIME. Time with the one I love.

If you like my channel and enjoy my work, I have no need for your money, but you may be able to give me time. You can take out your driver's license, turn it over, and check the box that makes you an organ donor. Also talk with your friends and family and make it clear what your wishes are. Maybe you can even convince some of them to become donors as well.

None of us can truly know when we will be making that final hike into the long dark. We only know that someday all of us will making the journey. Will you go meekly into the twilight, or rage against the injustice of it all? Will you calmly accept your fate, or suck the marrow from the bones of the world?

In the end, it isn't what you have, but what you leave behind. Perhaps in becoming an organ donor you can take some small comfort that when your last breath has passed, someone else might receive the gift. A gift of time. A gift of breath.

Breath that will not be taken for granted.

Please like, comment and subscribe

And if you do so feel inclined to donate money, I don't want it, but I would be ever so grateful if you clicked on the link below and donated directly to the LAM Foundation. 

https://www.thelamfoundation.org/Take-Action/Donate-Now


Music By:
Living Among Us
Morteth-Hastur

Video and Still Shots From: The Long Dark or free use websites