Today marks four weeks since our lives made a turn for the better. A lot has happened in that time.
Lucy sure does know how to keep us all on our toes. The biggest difference between congenital heart defect and transplant, surprisingly is there is some planning that goes into each surgery whereas with transplant you get a match and everything is on fast forward.
April 10th will be a day I never forget. I was in the family great room of the hospital working like usual. Mike had just gotten up to the hospital. As I was finishing a call and beginning to pack up my laptop, Mike called me to ask if I could come back to the room. He never does that. I walked back to Lucy's room, my stomach was sick with fear. Dr. Joong (transplant cardiologist) and Kristi (transplant APN) are waiting with Mike and she says, 'can we go into the conference room to talk?'. The four of us are standing in the conference room, I was to nervous to sit. Dr. Joong and Kristi look at each other and then Dr. Joong says, 'we found a heart'. I burst into tears. She followed it up, saying it's a good match and I think Lucy will do well with this heart.
Our last eleven months have been hard and I know Lucy has not felt good in a really long time. This blessing of a new heart came just at the right time.
The month prior to our fantastic news, we had been planning how to live at the hospital for eight months or more. Let's face it, Lucy has always made us wait a little longer. From our experience eight months was most likely on the short side. We were deciding if we should sell a car. We looked at possibly moving closer to public transportation to help with commuting. We had a schedule of who could be with Lucy (and Connor) so both of us could continue to work. Life happens when you are busy planning, isn't that how the saying goes?
We were told after a match is accepted, it usually takes about twelve to twenty four hours to get everything in line (meaning matches with other organs), so expect Lucy to go to the operating room around 2 pm the following day (April 11th, my birthday). Our first order of business, telling Lucy. The benefit of her age, she didn't really get that a new heart meant surgery (and another recovery). The downfall, her reaction and excitement was not quite up to the level we had hoped.
After immediate family came to visit Wednesday morning, Mike and had planned to hang out with Lucy and walk her down to the OR late afternoon. Around 2 pm, Dr. Joong came into the room and said there was a delay with our donor. The delay meant that Lucy would not go to the operating room until close to 11 pm that night. My first question was if Lucy could have some water. The answer was yes, until about 6 pm. When Lucy heard the news, she burst into tears. Dr. Joong and I looked at each other and thought that was the reaction we were looking for with the news of her new heart. Oh, but water is so much more important.
That night was a blur....if it wasn't for text messages, phone logs and facebook updates, I probably wouldn't have a timeline of what happened at all. By 8 pm, Lucy had fallen asleep and Mike and I moved to the family great room for the remainder of the night. The love seats although comfortable, were definitely not made for a night of sleeping. We were in and out of sleep until about midnight when our nurse called to say they were ready to take her to the operating room. We got calls every two to three hours with updates. At roughly 8 am, we were told her heart was in and beating on it's own. It would be another six hours before we would get to see her. By 4 pm, I could barely keep my eyes open. We both left Lucy in the capable hands of her nurse and got some much needed sleep.
