Young at Heart

Happy New Years to everyone! My New Years break from work has been quite eventful. On Thursday, January 1, I got a call from my uncle at about 11:30pm. "They found me a heart" he says. I about fell to the floor. He had an LVAD placed not more than 2 months ago. I thought people stay on the transplant list for months and months I never expected it to be so quick. So cousin Shane (his son) who were both at my mom's house, packed and drove to the University Hospital and I did the same. An hour later, once he's admitted and getting all the pre-op labs and such, they tell us visitors to go home, get some rest, the heart wont be here for 6-8 hours, so we went home. I got a call at about 7 that next morning from my uncle who says that they will take him into surgery that afternoon. I started to worry because they have told us all along that sometimes there can be false alarms for donor hearts and with all the waiting we'd been doing i feared that could be the case.

I had invited people over for the Utes game already and prepared lots of goodies so i stayed home Friday night but I hadn't talked to my uncle since that morning. When i called my uncle and cousin at about 7 pm for an update there was no answer from either so i called the SICU where he was staying, and they told me he was already in surgery, probably started around 630pm and would in the OR for about 5-6 hours. So I stayed home and tried to be a good hostess but the minute the game was over I headed to the hospital. It had been snowing so it took quite some time to get there. When i checked in with SICU at about 1050pm they told me that he was still in surgery and would be until about 1am. So I waited and waited and waited. (I've started The Outlander series so I did read the whole time, which helped pass the hours). I did get updates from the head nurse of SICU, Jaime (who is my cousin's wife's sister-in-law), which was comforting that we had someone that we know watching over my uncle, and Erin (one of the LVAD coordinators) came and talked with me as well. At about midnight or so cousin Shane called and said he just got to the hospital and was up on the third floor (surgery waiting room) and that i should come wait there with him.

Finally at 230am Dr Salesman came and told us that heart was in my uncle now but they were having some trouble controlling all the bleeding but they didn't want to keep him in the OR any longer so they were going to close and just monitor him over the next little bit but there was a chance he would need to go back in again if the bleeding kept up. He told us to go home, That Uncle Robby wouldn't be moved back to his room for an hour and he certainly wouldn't be awake any time soon. So reluctantly, Shane and I went home on the condition that they call us if anything changed. At about 8am the next day (Saturday) I got a phone call from my Uncle Robby himself. He said that he was doing great (obviously since he was calling me himself!) and that everything was grand. I couldn't believe it.

My poor mom, who has been the one caring for him this whole time, took a short vacation down to New Orleans for the Utes game and was crushed that she wasn't here for all of this. Thank goodness those Utes won or i think she would've regretted even leaving. I picked her up from the airport at 1pm Saturday and we headed to the hospital. When we got there my uncle was out of bed in his chair greeting us! I can't even begin to tell you how well he looked. It was a whole new Uncle Rob.

It has been the longest three days but i can hardly believe its real. I am so thankful that he has a new heart and that he's doing so well. Here is a picture of him not even 7 hours from heart transplant giving the thumbs up. He still had several drains from his chest and lots of leads, wires and IV bags but they are getting less and less as the days go by. There are thinking that he'll get to come home in the next 2 weeks.

We know his heart came from Arizona. It was a 28 year old male. So my mom says he's "Young at Heart" now. It's hard to think of a 28 y/o guy. One with parents, siblings, maybe a wife and kids. A guy that is no longer on Earth with the rest of us. It really makes me sad to know that his family is without him now. But whoever they are, I just couldn't ever thank them enough for this new life he's given my uncle. It's the most self-less thing you could ever do and it is why my drivers license will ALWAYS say 'Yes' in the donor box.