Waiting for Transplant

Transplanting tulips or irises feels bright springy earthy.  Transplanting vital organs feels dark and mysterious.  Vital.  Organs.

            Sharing my travels on this dark mysterious journey sometimes seems excessive, but I'm encouraged to write this by believing that some want to share my journey--some of the not-too-gruesome details.  Some have asked when.  Nobody knows.   

            Zeliha, my transplant team nurse, whom I've never met face to  face, has called with team orders  for me to stop taking Plavix.  When I've been off that blood thinner for a week (keeping my ten-month old coronary artery stent open) I can be "listed."

            Nevertheless, they continue retesting me.  Last Thursday I had to prove I could maintain same speed on my six-minute walk test that I had three weeks earlier.  At 8:30 am on Thursday, April 12, I meet with another thoracic surgeon and have more tests.

            "Listing" means being on an official national list of patients eligible for the organ needed.  The greater the need the higher you are on the list.  In order to be called for a transplant, you must be a fit with the donated organ in terms of size and compatibility of blood type.  Duke has a good record of short time (14-19 days average) from listing to the call.  Once I'm listed I must be glued to my cell phone. 

            Please send prayers and peace to the generous person who agreed to donate their organs upon death and to the family who make the decision in the midst of their grief.  

            When a donor organ that fits me becomes available, someone from Duke calls me to come to the hospital in no less than two hours.  Before then, a recovery team has been harvesting all usable organs for several hours.  This must be marvelously gratifying work--to bring out of someone's death several new lives for people who would die without those Vital Organs.  

            At Duke the transplant surgeon examines the lung thoroughly while I'm prepared for surgery (chest x-ray, blood tests, more anti-rejection drugs by IV).  The surgeon may not accept the lung, as happened to two people in my group two weeks ago.  They were sent home disappointed but hopeful of receiving another lung soon.  Both of those people have since received new lungs from one donor.

            Surgery takes about 5-9 hours.  We're told that patients have no memory of  anything the first 12-24 hours after surgery, but your family make view you in ICU.  

            Waking up from surgery, I may have a nose tube draining stomach content, chest tubes draining my lungs, other tubes draining other orifices, and a large IV catheter in my neck monitoring heart function.  I may have a breathing tube in my mouth or nose and thus be unable to speak.  I may be fed through the in the nose for days or weeks.

            When I've reached an acceptable recovery stage after surgery,  I'll be taken from ICU to a step-up room where the nurses will begin to get me out of bed standing and walking as soon as possible.  Average stay in hospital after surgery is about two weeks depending on complications.  Many get released but return when new complications arise.  Almost everyone can expect some rejection of the alien organ.

            You can contact Doris: 505 463 1679 or dorburk@hotmail.com.