5/28/2016 - Turn Shit into Sugar: Opportunism

Have you ever seen the Geico commercial, where the former NFL player, Ickey Woods is at the grocery deli? And when his ticket number is called, he starts doing this touch down dance yelling "wool! 44 that's me!! Get some cold cuts! Get some cold cuts!! Wooo!"?

We love that commercial. If you see Leila, she will actually say it for you. Makes us laugh all the time. But I digress.

Well. Last night after we put the kids to bed, that was us. Our number finally got called. We got our second call from The Georgetown Liver Transplant Coordinator at 10:32pm. A 33 year old woman, local, around the same size as Matt, healthy, low risk... Unfortunately had a stroke while having a c-section, and passed away. She was listed as an organ donor. She qualified as a perfect match for Whitey.

(I know. It is hard to even write that down as parents... Much less to be joyful that that is our option. But, that is our reality.)

Anyway, Matt is the primary recipient of her liver, and there is a secondary recipient and possible tertiary recipient waiting for it here at Georgetown, in case last minute Matt does not qualify. We immediately called Matt's parents and Bill (my father in law) came over immediately to watch the kids overnight.

We woke the kids up, and did a White family hug. Told them that we loved them, and that daddy is going to the hospital. Eli didn't seem to understand, but Leila looked pretty concerned.

We got into the cancer car, and got over to the Georgetown ER. Matt only went through one semi red light. (I'd call that a win!!). We stepped into the ER, and I swear, I have never seen such service at a hospital. They were waiting for him, and we walked right up to the transplant floor. We did the paperwork from bed.

They did another chest X-ray, EKG, and then blood work to make sure again that Matt's antibodies matched the donor. (My Lord. All the tubes. Insanity...) Then they did the IV. For some reason, they had to get Matt 5 times before they got a good IV started. His kept "blowing out" and his vein would disappear. I felt awful for him.

By the time that was all done, we were sitting in the bed at 3am... Laying in the bed together, trying to get some rest.

I'd doze off, and look over at Matt. Usually his eyes were open and he would smile at me. Or tell me he loved me, and we would try and go back to sleep. We finally got a few hours in here and there. We actually were pretty comfy all snuggled up on the hospital bed.... Which is nice considering that this will probably be the last night we can sleep like that.

Anyway, I'm babbling. The surgeon, Dr. Alexander Helmut Kurt Kroemer MD (very direct. German ) told us that the organ was still in the donor, and they would be testing and evaluating today. He examined Matt, and said that the procedure would be more complicated due to his existing scars... So it would likely be an 8hour+ transplant. He wouldn't give us more information, but said it would likely be around 10pm tonight.

Fingers crossed that this works. It is a lot of hurry up and wait.

For now, we are both a little on edge, but have received all of your calls, texts, Facebook messages, emails, etc. cheering Matt on. You have no clue how much it means to us. It makes us smile... Especially now in the waiting stage.

12 hours in from the initial call... And it seems like an eternity, but oddly enough time is standing still. Does that make sense?

Many of you have asked how you can help. Our dear friend Lara McCauley has set up a website to help us out. If you are interested in helping in some way (having a meal delivered, driving, helping with the kids, mowing the grass while I'm not able to, helping take out the trash, providing money for parking (it's pay parking only which drives me nuts)

Go to our Community web address: 

1. https://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/c/729068/
   
   Instruct the people you've invited to use the ‘Join this Community’ link to fill out the form which is a Request to Join the Community. Once they've done this, Whitey, Tessa, and Lara will receive emails stating that there are ‘Pending Members’. Members will be automatically notified and provided instructions for signing in to the Community.

That's it for now. They have given Matt the okay to eat until lunch. So I am on the way to get him something delicious.  

Lots of love, 

Tessa