Alright, here is the second batch of pics. We ended last time with our arrival at Boeing Feild and then driving to the hospital. The above picture is in the ICU were I am being prepped for surgery. There were five or six nurses starting IV's, taking vitals, taking blood, etc. It was kind of crazy.
All plugged in. (The thing dangeling from my chest is the tube that goes to my Porta-Cath. A Port is a permanent venous access point that I have in my chest all the time, but can de-access when I don't need it, and then access it when I do.)
This is Dr. Kate. She was awesome. Here she is going over all of the formal paperwork, discussing the risks, possible complications, and consequences of transplant.
Here I am being divested of my jewelry and personal possessions. The Resident Pulmonologist is looking on while all the nurses continue to buzz around the room.
Struggling to get my toe ring off. (I really didn't want to take it off, have had it on since 8th grade and have managed until then to not take it of for procedures, by hiding my foot or charming my way into getting to keep it on. Not for transplant, you do everything they say, no messing around.) Eventually Keith just had to man-handle it off. He is not sure if he could do it again with out pliers, but at that moment he had so much adrenal pumping through his veins it was like the Hulk ripping a car in half.
Done being prepped, now being transported to pre-op. (This picture was taken at 12:02pm. I received the call for my lungs at 7:30am. In just four and a half hours we flew from Eugene, drove from the airport to the hospital, checked in, I was prepped for surgery, and in pre-op by 12:15. Pretty amazing how fast that all came together. Nobody messes around when new organs are involved.)
In pre-op. This is were Keith and Peg had to leave. They were in ICU with me and got to walk down to pre-op, then we all said goodbye, see you soon, good luck and all shed a few tears while trying to hold it all together. I was in bed 18, and there was only one other person in there with me.
Normally all the beds are full, but since it was a holiday there were no scheduled surgeries. The other woman there was receiving the liver from the same donor that I was receiving lungs from.
These are the two anesthesiologists who monitored me during surgery.
Here in pre-op I was prepped even more. They started an arterial line in my wrist, which really hurt and was really messy. (They put that in to monitor the amount of oxygen and CO2 in your blood during and after transplant. Those levels let them know how well, or not well, your lungs are doing. ) They did another set of vitals, and began a number of IV drips. (To keep my blood sugar regulated and to keep me hydrated.) Also lots of questions about my allergies to medicine, and my history with pain meds. and anesthesia to make sure they give me the right stuff during and after surgery.
Peg walking to the waiting room. K. adds : when we left the pre-op we walked down a long hall where the public is not normally allowed. We stopped for a couple of hugs and maybe a tear or two, I know we were approaching this door with a bit of reluctance, because once we passed through it we were truly cut off from Emily. The reality and enormity and finality of the transplant was settling in now.
K : We were in the waiting room from around 12:30 until about 7:30. Did a few cross word puzzles, some suduko, a little reading and a bit of worrying. Peg tried to nap but I do not think that it was a peaceful sleep.
Here I am back in the ICU after the transplant. I have absolutely no memory of this moment. I am heavily sedated and on lots of pain medication and on an entirely different planet. This picture was taken at 9:15pm, I regained consciousness the next day around two in the afternoon. More pictures to come of the next segments of this journey.
K : We were taken back to ICU [same room the prep was done in] about 8:00 pm. We were just a bit anxious to see Emily, although assured that all had gone well, we were needing to see for ourselves. She was resting quietly, very heavily sedated at this point but with good color. We started talking to her almost at once and pretty much kept that up at some level all night and the next day until she was extubated, late in the afternoon. Most of the time we held her hand and if you paused too long she would give a hard squeeze, which we took as the sign to keep babbling.
The room is now very different than when the pre-op prep was done. In the background behind Peg you can see the array of IV stuff. There are about a dozen bags and a double row of pumps on that one pole. Also, at the head of the bed, misc monitors and the machine which is helping Emily breathe, with her new transplanted lungs. New lungs ! The nurse was in the room almost every single moment.
