POST FALLS - When Mike Darrar woke up from his recent bilateral lung transplant, he couldn't believe his eyes.

"I was shocked to see my hands pink," the Post Falls 44-year-old said. "They'd been purple my whole life."

His fingernails are starting to grow again.

"It doesn't sound significant, but it really is," Darrar said. "You see where the old lines were from depleted oxygen and they've grown seven-sixteenths of an inch already in two weeks."

Darrar, diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as an infant, readily admits he was living his final days before a donation of a set of lungs and subsequent transplant on May 3 happened. Many Cystic Fibrosis patients don't live past their mid-20s.

"It had gotten to the point where I couldn't talk," he said, adding that he was on oxygen 24 hours a day. "A few days were touch and go. But I never gave up."

Darrar, put on the organ donor list in January, had a lot of practice to develop that mindset.

"A lot of it was from just who I am," he said. "I had battled Cystic Fibrosis for 44 years already. A lot of that occurred naturally to me."

Darrar is on the road to recovery. After the transplant, he was on a ventilator for less than 24 hours, almost unheard of for such patients.

He got out of University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle on Friday and will stay in an RV park near the facility for at least three months for followup appointments.

With a new lease on life, Darrar appreciates every breath and being able to enjoy what he lost when he became seriously ill a year ago. He hasn't been able to work since 1999 and fish or hunt in a year. His involvement with helping restore the old Pleasant View school south of Post Falls also became limited.

But things are changing with each day he becomes more mobile.

"I cooked dinner the other night and cooked breakfast the next morning," he said. "I can walk around a lake here (at the RV park in Bothell) and I'll even be able to fish it as soon as I can move my arm enough to cast. I have my pole with me."

Darrar's wife Kathy calls her husband's situation "amazing."

"To have someone go from being so sick and struggling to just breathe to well on his way to a much better life is humbling," she said, adding that the couple won't know the lung donor's family unless they respond to their letter of thanks.

Claudia Holtz, Mike's mother-in-law, said she has learned life lessons through his ordeal.

"We all take our plans for tomorrow for granted," she said. "With Mike in the family, I have learned to live one day at a time and to treasure every day we have together."

Darrar, who was raised in Fernwood, graduated from St. Maries and has lived in North Idaho most of his life, worked as mechanic and at a chain saw shop before his illness.

Since he won't be able to work in a dirty environment, he said he may eventually go back to college to earn a degree in a field such as engineering or work on helicopters. With the school restoration project, grant writing rather than physical labor in the historic building may be a better fit.

But what won't change is Darrar's homefront.

"I've had 44 years of a good life and have been married (to Kathy) for 20," he said. "When she asked what I want to do differently, I said, 'Why don't we go back to the same life we had?' I was happy with that. We just need to keep going from there."

Fundraising efforts

A recent breakfast fundraiser raised about $3,800 for Mike Darrar's lung transplant-related expenses not covered by insurance. To date, $17,534 has been raised toward the $40,000 goal.

Future fundraisers include: a quilt show and raffle at Calvary Lutheran Church, 1011 N. Compton, Post Falls, on June 18 from 5-8:30 p.m.; a dinner and auctions at the St. Maries Elks on July 9 starting at 5 p.m.; and a drawing for a half of beef through Kevin and Linda McGrath at 773-3090.

To donate and for more information and updates on fundraising, visit the nonprofit Children's Organ Transplant Association's site at www.COTAforMikeD.com.