BREATHING ROOM FEELING FINE, HE'LL BIKE L.A. MARATHON.

Byline: Amy Raisin Darvish Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Less than six months ago, after a lifetime of coughing fits and labored breathing, Scott Klein was being prepped for a transplant that would replace his diseased lungs.

At 35, the Valencia resident had already eclipsed the life expectancy for people with cystic fibrosis.

The lung transplant, he told himself, would be just one more of the come-from-behind victories that has defined his life since he was diagnosed with the condition at age 2.

It's that same determination, according to his wife, that fueled Klein's decision to participate in the bicycle portion of Sunday's Los Angeles Marathon just months after major surgery.

``I'd prefer it if he didn't ride in the marathon,'' said Klein's wife, Gabbi, who married her college sweetheart 10 years ago. ``But I feel like I need to honor who he is. I think it's a milestone for him, a rite of passage. He's just always been very determined.''

Cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease caused by a defective gene, causes the body to produce an abnormally thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and obstructs pancreatic function.

Limited lung capacity and the inability to properly absorb nutrients can turn simple tasks like walking across the room or rising from a chair into exhausting efforts that leave the sufferer gasping for air.

Klein, who graduated from Calabasas High in 1986 and played on the ice hockey team at California Lutheran University, said severe, hourly coughing fits - so intense that going to the movies often meant annoyed glances and curt comments from other moviegoers - were ``just how things had always been.''

DeLee Glasser, transplant coordinator at the University of California, San Diego, where Klein had the operation, was tentative upon learning of Klein's marathon plans. But she was not surprised.

``From day one, this has always been a determined guy. He was working full time and has always been really good at (keeping up) with his medication and exercise,'' Glasser said. ``We normally wouldn't encourage something like this so soon, but he's doing exceptionally well.''

Klein, who recently took a job in the finance department at Motorola, said the difference in his breathing ability since the surgery is extreme. Before the transplant, 30 percent lung capacity was considered a good day; post-surgery, his lung capacity is about 90 percent.

Gabbi Klein said it wasn't until after the surgery that she realized how sick her husband had been, and how skilled she had become at blocking out the painful symptoms.

``When someone close to you is dying, I think you just stop looking at them, you stop seeing,'' she said, tears filling her eyes. ``When I came in and saw him after the operation, the first thing I noticed was his fingernails.

``Every since I had known him, his finger nail beds had a blue tinge to them. When I walked in after the surgery, his nail beds were pink,'' she said. ``His lungs were finally giving him life. It was like a rebirth.''

As the couple sat on their living room couch Thursday evening, they smiled as the singing voice of their 6-year-old daughter, Alexandra, traveled down the stairs.

``I used to just pray to live to see her graduate from high school,'' Klein said. ``Now, the sky's the limit. I'm going to see her on her wedding day. I'm going to see my grandkids. I'm very blessed.''

For information on upcoming Cystic Fibrosis Foundation events and fund- raisers, log on to www.cff.org.

Amy Raisin Darvish, [phone]

amy.raisin(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Lung transplant recipient Scott Klein will bike the L.A. Marathon. His wife, Gabbi, and daughter, Alexandra, will root for him.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer