"We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance."
Harrison Ford

From down under, there is a story of survival and introspection about a man aptly nicknamed "The Historic Wizard." As this tale unfolds, it becomes apparent that the Wizard has the ability to look deeply inside himself, as well as inside others. He has taken what many would consider a lemon, and made lemonade.

According to Graham Hyde’s family, he spent most of his first two years crying. Graham, currently 50, sees the crying "as a sign that I already knew what my life was going to be like and didn’t want to stay." Growing up in New Zealand, it seems he was always dealing with some illness. He began to have recurring ear, nose and throat infections at around six years of age. By the time he was 14, he had his first of many pneumonias and hospital stays. He was averaging about four bouts of pneumonia per year.

Graham spent much of his life asking "Why me?" This is a common question among PID patients, but Graham seemed to dig a little deeper looking for the answer. In spite of his illness he found a way to have a career that was also his hobby. He became a qualified motor mechanic with a passion for race cars. He spent much of his time building and maintaining race cars until one week-end, while working on his own race car, he severed the tendons to his thumb. He had surgery to correct this injury and was out of work and in a cast for 3 months. This turning point ended his working career combined with a serious of events that followed. Graham went for his yearly flu vaccination, but this particular one contained a live portion and within hours his breathing began to decline. As he felt increasingly worse, his doctors blamed a flu bug. Eventually Graham ended up in ICU and during the night was moved to full life support. The medical staff found he was riddled with pseudomonas (opportunistic bacterium which grow in immunocompromised individuals and resist antibiotics), and informed Graham that there was no hope of survival. He can still recall the struggle of trying to breathe and the feeling of suffocation, during this near death experience which he referred to as "the light at the end of the tunnel." Graham has a distinct "memory of being sent back with more work yet to be done on this life path." He felt this was the "beginning of his beginning – why am I here, what do I have to do – who am I really?"

Following this, Graham was diagnosed in 1992 with hyopgammaglobulineamea, Ig3, IgA and IgM defiency. During the next few months, following his release from the hospital, he began a schedule of IVIG every three weeks, which has continued to this day.

How to make lemonade out of this situation? First, Graham decided to move to Australia, where the climate was better and he knew he would feel healthier. He had to work on his attitude as well, "I have had a lot of issues with my anger toward the health system in general taking so long to DX me, and yet I have to thank them and the IVIG that keeps me on this planet today - odd situation to be in."

Going on disability was a difficult choice for Graham to make. "On one hand, I felt I deserved to be able to try and enjoy what sort of life I had left, and yet I was never ready for the issues with the lack of money to be able to enjoy anything". Graham feels that the biggest challenge in his life is money. Yet, what does he jump into? A volunteer job that offers no pay. Why? Because he feels that if only "one person is triggered into doing something for themselves my work is done."

Graham became a volunteer counselor for a group called Lifeline. He also trains others to do this work. He can’t believe how profoundly this volunteer job has changed his life. The work provides endless enjoyment for him, so much so that he is now considering going to university to become a certified counselor and actually earn an income doing so. His counseling work has also given Graham the ability to deal with his anger at the system that left him feeling let down all of his life.

The combination of his near death experience and his counseling work has helped him to find himself spiritually. He knew it wasn’t his time to go, but didn’t know why he was given more time. He feels that he now has the ability to have a profound effect on the people around him. He’s able to guide them to better understand their own life path as well. He has been told repeatedly, by people from all walks of life, that he is a healer of sorts. This work has given him a reason for being.

Not that he doesn’t already have a good reason for living. His son Chris, 13, just happened to be born on the same day as Graham, who was born on the same day as his father! Chris is very aware of the condition of his Dad’s health and helps as much as he possibly can. But, they both feel frustrated when Graham can’t ride a bike or kick a footy around with him. They have had to find mutual ground in quieter pastimes such as fishing and racing radio controlled cars.

While Graham still feels very compromised physically and often feels scared, he claims it is much better than before his diagnosis. His energy levels are low, his oxygen levels drop, his lungs are scarred and he uses the proper medication to treat those conditions. He also keeps his living space much like a quarantine zone. He wears a personal ionizer in public. He continues his treatment of IVIG every 3 weeks as well.

As for his future? He used to take one day at time, but of late, he has been able to look further ahead. Not too far ahead though - and "that is a different and positive feeling for him." He finds that "I want to be just like me again!" And, the pearls of wisdom the ‘Historic Wizard’ would like to share with all of us?

"Have dreams and aspirations but never give up on realizing them no matter what. You may never know when they may be fulfilled."

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Last updated 30 Dec 2006