At 9:00am Wednesday March 17
th, 2010, my work phone rang. There was a doctor on the other line. A few minutes later I was discovering he was one of the Pulmonary doctors at my transplant center, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He wanted to let me know that the surgeon, Dr. Camp wanted him to call me and stay by the phone because they had a pair of lungs they were looking at for me. He said he would call me back in an hour to an hour and a half. So over 3 hours passed...no call. I was told I could eat something light so ate an Ensure. At Noon, I got in touch with the clinic, she called Dr. Camp's cell phone and told me he still wanted me on standby.
At 1:15, the pulmonary doctor called back to say Dr. camp wanted me to head to the hospital. Though, they still did not know if it was a go. We got to the hospital around 4:00pm. After running here there and everywhere I was admitted and sent to the ER. Admitting said I was a go for 6:30pm and ER did not have that information so sat in the ER room. About 20 minutes passed and the ER nurse believed it was a go for 7
ish. At this point no lines had been started. A calm just came over me. They went to town. At 7:30pm, I was rolled back to the OR waiting area. At 8:10pm, I remember hearing the surgeon say let's roll!
The next time I remember anything is Saturday March 20
th around 2pm. I do know though that I have had a double lung transplant, another surgery for a bleed, I have been in ICU and now in a nice little corner room with a nice view. It has been quite a ride. I will need a lot of help the next few months recovering from this ordeal.
Thank you all that sent positive thoughts and prayers my way. They were definitely heard.