About Me

    My name is Carl Bezeau and I am a 25 year old afflicted with cystic fibrosis.  Last year on March 3rd I received a double lung transplant which has changed my life dramatically.  I was diagnosed with CF when I was born, my mother knowing already that I had the illness due to symptoms she knew to look for because my older brother also has CF.  

      I am originally from a small place called Miscou Island on the North Eastern tip of New Brunswick.  I now reside in Winnipeg Manitoba and recieved my transplant at Winnipeg Health Science Center.  Although I had regular hospital visits a couple of times a year while I was growing up, CF did not really start to affect my life until my teenage years when my hospital stays increased to 3 or more times a year.  Half way through my senior year of high school (2002) my mother passed away due to cancer leaving my older brother at the age of 22 to be responsible for myself at 17, and my younger sister only 14 at the time.   

    By the age of 21 my hospital stays increased to between 14 and 20 days while my time between stays decreased to as little as four or five weeks.  At this time my doctors began discussing the possibility of a transplant with me.  I was then sent to Montreal for a 2 week hospital stay where I underwent many different tests to see if I was a candidate for a double-lung transplant.  But after I got back home nothing moved forward and after several month's I still was not on the list.  I therefore decided one night while at the train station, seeing my uncle off, that I would be leaving NB in search of something different.

    That night I got home and by morning had my stuff packed and what I was not bringing stored away.  A few days later I was heading to Toronto with my cousin on our way to visit my uncle.  Once in Toronto I unfortunetly got sick and had to admit myself to the hospital.  During my stay my cousin proposed we head to British Columbia to go snowboarding.  Being a person of adventure I joined him a week after my discharge and we flew to BC and headed for Whistler-Blackcomb.  Another cousin, working in BC at the time, was preparing to drive back to NB in his motorhome.  We joined him for the trip which turned out to be a far more satisfying way to travel than flying.  Arriving in Shilo, Manitoba to visit another cousin stationed here in the military, I got off and decided to stay.  My cousin and I have since driven from Shilo to New Brunswick, thereby completing my cross-Canada road trip.

    I decided to stay in Manitoba with my cousin Dean because we are the same age and have been like brothers growing up.  I was fortunate to find in Winnipeg a very good CF clinic and doctors that seemed to really want to help me.  Even with their support it still took a couple of years for me to get on the lung transplant list.  With better treatment regimes and more encouragement from my CF clinic I persevered and tried to stay as active as I could.  There were times however, when I felt like giving up and once was admitted by my cousin when I had lost hope.  I managed to pull through that time, and within two years of being on the waiting list, I got the phone call that changed my life.