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<\/a><\/div>\nIt was Spring Break, 2006 – my second Spring Break of college. We laid on the beach in Rocky Point, Mexico all morning and, sometime around noon, made our way back inside for lunch and a quick nap.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0I would later meet an amazing family and January 30, 2006:<\/strong> First Call. Match not sufficient – transplant called off.<\/span> Everyone doesn’t get those chances – almost 20 people die every single day<\/strong><\/em> waiting on a organ transplants<\/a> that can’t take place due to the shortage of donations. That person could be your mom, your sister, your husband or, God-forbid, your child.\u00a0<\/span>
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\nI had strict instructions from my mom not<\/strong> to call or text anyone while I was out of the country and not to answer any calls if someone tried to get ahold of me. So, like a good little college student who is still lucky enough to have a mom who pays their cellphone bill, my phone had been off the entire trip. Before I laid down, for a reason I cannot explain, I decided to turn it back on and keep it by me.\u00a0<\/span>
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\nWhen it rang I was asleep and I answered it without thinking.\u00a0<\/span>
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\n“Randy got the call. They’ve already done preliminary matching and everything looks good. They are about to take him to surgery.”<\/em><\/span>
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\nFor years doctors diagnosed him with everything from depression to COPD. It wasn’t until 2003 that someone finally discovered that the real cause of my Step Dad’s exhaustion, fatigue and cough was an extremely rare form of Primary Pulmonary Hypertension called <\/span>Pulmonary Veno-Occlusive Disease<\/a><\/span>. While we were ecstatic to finally have a concrete diagnosis, it was\u00a0devastating\u00a0to read things like “no cure<\/em>” and\u00a0“s<\/em><\/span>urvival may be months to a few years in adults.”\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>
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\nSo, standing on the beach in Mexico, trying to hide the fact that I was bawling my eyes out, I tearfully told my Step-Dad to be strong and that I loved him. I hung up the phone and prayed for the donor family, knowing that somewhere not too far from Randy’s pre-op room a family had just had their world rocked by the loss of someone they loved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-iL3n82c8k-g\/TX7rgdbXUtI\/AAAAAAAAALU\/MxHTsQm2-Us\/s200\/P20731019.200.jpg\")
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\n<\/span>find out just how massive that loss truly was.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
\nTimeline of Transplant<\/span><\/h2>\n
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\nMarch 13: <\/strong>Step-dad takes an Ambien to help him sleep.<\/span>
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\nMarch 14, 7:30am:<\/strong> Step-dad answers the phone, hears “you have lungs waiting on you, be at the hospital in the next hour<\/em>” and does what any normal person waiting on a life-saving organ transplant would do – HANGS UP THE PHONE AND GOES BACK TO SLEEP<\/strong>. By the Grace of God, my mom was up getting ready for work and was able to ask what the call was about.<\/span>
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\nMarch 14:<\/strong> Match Confirmed. Surgery is a go.
\nMarch 14:<\/strong>\u00a0Step-dad blessed with gift of two new lungs.\u00a0<\/span>
\nMarch 15:<\/strong>\u00a0Very dangerous reperfusion injury discovered.\u00a0<\/span>
\nApril 4:<\/strong> Extubated<\/a>\u00a0(off ventilator\/life-support)\u00a020 days post-transplant<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>
\nApril 7:<\/strong> Moved to transplant floor after 23 ICU days.<\/span>
\nApril 11:<\/strong> Liquid diet allowed. First drink in 27 days.<\/span>
\nApril 14:<\/strong> Some eating allowed. First food in 1 month.<\/span>
\nApril 20:<\/strong> DISCHARGED! 29 lbs lost since transplant.<\/strong><\/span>
\nMay 1:<\/strong> Coughing up blood, short of breath.<\/span>
\nMay 2:<\/strong> Readmitted.\u00a0<\/span>
\nMay 4:<\/strong> Bronchioplasty.<\/span>
\nMay 5:<\/strong> Back to the ICU. Mild acute rejection, pneumonia, strictures, low 02<\/span> sats.<\/span>
\nMay 6:<\/strong> Out of ICU. Back to transplant floor.\u00a0<\/span>
\nMay 9: <\/strong>Open lung biopsy. Back to ICU on ventilator.<\/span>
\nMay 14:<\/strong> Finally off ventilator again.\u00a0<\/span>
\nMay 16:<\/strong> Out of ICU. Back to transplant floor.<\/span>
\nMay 20: <\/strong>Chest tubes out.<\/span>
\nMay 21:<\/strong> Pneumonia was from\u00a0aspiration. Nothing by mouth for 6 more weeks.<\/span>
\nMay 23:<\/strong> J-Tube<\/a> Placed<\/span>
\nMay 26: <\/strong>HOME AGAIN! 49lbs lost since transplant.<\/strong><\/span>
\nJune 1:<\/strong> Readmitted, MRSA Pneumonia in right lower lobe.<\/span>
\nJune 2:<\/strong> Discharged with PICC line.<\/span>
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\nSometime in July he got his J-Tube out and was allowed to start eating “real” food again. Note that this was almost 4 months with nothing to eat or drink, there was only about a week long period where he was out of the hospital and able to eat and drink before we discovered he was aspirating.\u00a0<\/span>
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\nThere have been ups and downs, including a year of all holidays & birthdays being spent in hospitals and more days being in-patient than not, but he has come so far. The statistics for five year lung transplant survival are mediocre, at best, and he is thriving today.<\/span>
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\nI wanted to write this blog to express why I am an organ donor and why I think it’s important for everyone to be informed on this issue.\u00a0<\/span>
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\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-YZXkjBgkaVs\/TX7rg6hxeKI\/AAAAAAAAALY\/_AR9sKyFZMI\/s320\/wipqhi.jpg\")
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\nWe were blessed.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
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\nIn March of 2007 we had the great honor of meeting the family of our organ donor. He was 20, less than one year older than I was at the time, and his name was Craig. He was taken far too soon from a family who loved him dearly. They made the choice, in their time of horrible tragedy and loss, to see through their pain and help others. Because of Craig and his family – m<\/span>y step-dad attended my wedding in 2009, he saw his only biological daughter turn 16 and, God-willing, he will see her graduate high school next May.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/-vcqWTo8bZus\/TX7rf4dLaTI\/AAAAAAAAALI\/fgbYAsr0mzs\/s320\/24mt44y.jpg\")
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\nYou hear it everywhere, “make sure you tell your family,”<\/em> and I cannot express how true this holds. No mother, in her darkest hour, should have to make the heart-wrenching decision that Craig’s mom so gracefully made. No wife, when she wants nothing more than to turn back the clock just a couple hours, should have to choose to give away a piece of their husband. It’s hard and it’s unnecessary, because we have the choice right now, today, to take that decision<\/a> into our own hands and spare our loved ones. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mindonmed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/donate_life-for-powerpoint.png\" "\\"Donate")
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