My mom received her lifesaving heart transplant in March of 2004. The surgery went well, and although there were a few minor setbacks shortly after the surgery, she got stronger everyday. She was in the intensive care unit a bit longer than most transplant patients are, but eventually she was released to a regular room to spend some time.
It was during this time that Mom and I spoke on the phone on a daily basis. I was very close to my due date with our second son, so I was still not able to travel and see her. She was doing very well, but I really wanted to see her.
It was actually on the day my son was born, one week ahead of his scheduled c-section date that my mom had her first heart biopsy after her transplant. These biopsies would become a regular thing in our lives, but this was the first one.
I had ended up having my son a week earlier than expected. During my c-section (my first son was born via an emergency c-section less than two years before my second son), the doctor nicked my bladder, but had no idea that this had occurred. After I was sewn up from the c-section, the nurse noticed blood in my catheter. I ended up having to be put under and had to have a second, three hour long surgery to repair the hole in my bladder.
My mom was having a biopsy at this time, not knowing that I was having a baby. We had left her a message and Dad a message on their cell phones that our baby was going to be born that day. My husband left a second message that our son was born and he was healthy, but that there had been a complication with me and I was in surgery.
That was the message my mom received after she came out of her first biopsy procedure. Now, this biopsy is no fun, she is sedated a bit and the procedure takes place through a vein in her neck. Imagine how upsetting it was to hear that her daughter had a complication and was in surgery, then to hear nothing for hours. Imagine then getting the news that her body was rejecting her heart, three weeks after the transplant.
Yes, Mom received news that day that she was in heart rejection. Her stress level was high, which is not where it should be. My mom said she didn’t stop stressing until she finally heard from my husband that all was well with me. She trusted the doctors could turn her rejection around, but she was worried about her baby.
For three months after her heart transplant, Mom and Dad had to live up in Rochester, Minnesota. The cardiologists there take no chances and want to keep close tabs on their patients for quite some time after the surgery. Mom and Dad chose to live in the Gift of Life Transplant House for those three months.
Mom’s cardiologists chose to change her medications to get her to come out of the rejection. Whatever they did, it worked. What was nice was that the Gift of Life House allowed my mom to recover in a place where others knew what she was going through, so when she had this rejection, everyone there calmed her nerves. It is quite common to reject that first biopsy, they told her.
Her recovery continued to go well and Mom was doing so well that they allowed my dad to bring her home for a visit during the weekend of Memorial Day. This was the first time she would have seen me and seen her newest grandson since his birth.
It was a long time to wait, but it was worth it. I remember seeing my mom get out of her car and I remember beginning to weep. I remember hugging her so tight, just being grateful for this second chance at life. I then introduced her to her newest grandson. She had made her goal of living to see him born. The best news of all, she had a new heart that would allow for her to see him grow for a long time to come!
Her donor was an angel in our eyes. To learn more about him, read my blog tomorrow!