Surgery

At 4:30 a.m. May 27, 2008 I was taken to the OR. When they came and got me from ER, saying good bye to my family was a wake up call. I really didn't know if I would see them again. We said our good bye's and I was taken into the OR. I don't remember a lot, but I remember it being cold, and white, and noisy!! I was on the OR table and my arms were stretched out like I was on a cross. They sat me up to get things ready, and across the room was a pink wash tub and two doctors holding this huge pink organ!! I said "Is that my liver"?? The nurse said, "yes it is, isn't it beautiful"? The doctors were putting the bile ducts into the ports. And that is the last thing I remember for about 9 days!!

On our way

We left the house and dropped Brooke off, and headed to IU. We got around the corner from our house, and my car was out of gas. So we came back home and got Britton's car and then were on our way. We were 'truckin' down 70, and we passed .. flew by a State trooper. His lights came on as soon as we passed him. We pulled over and Dave waved him to pull up beside us, he pulled up and Dave told him we had to get to the hospital for a liver transplant. The officer said "Go For It".
We got there in 20 minutes.
Dave let Britton and I off at ER and I checked myself in. Nervous and scared I told them I was here for a liver transplant. I got in a room right away and stayed there until 4:30a.m. when I was taken in for surgery.
My mom, my sister Marla, and brother in law Jason all came right away and just hung out in the floor! My friend Kristen came up to and stayed in my bed with me until I was taken back. It was a very small room.
The doctors came in and told me that my liver was flying in from Ohio. They told me I was getting a pediatric liver from Ohio, and that's all I knew. I prayed for that family.

Getting on the transplant list

So.. I'll try to keep this short~ I did about 3 months of testing for transplant work up, to make sure I was healthy enough to have the surgery. I had to have: a drug test, pulmonary test, bone scan, treadmill, heart cath, MRI's, CT's, chest x-rays, colonoscopy, see a dietitian, psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker.. I was finally cleared for transplant and went on the Donor List on April 2, 2008.
I'll skip ahead to the day I got the call--At the time I worked for Plainfield Schools. I was an assistant with developmental preschool.
I got "The Call" Memorial Day night, at 11:45 p.m. The kids just went to bed, and Dave and I were still up. The phone rang and it said I U Hospital. I just stared at the screen and I said, "Hello" and the other end said "Lynn this is Kristy at IU hospital, and we have a Liver for you". I said "What did you just say', she repeated it, I had her on speaker phone so Dave could hear. While I was on the phone with her, I started calling people on my cell phone. -- She said you have 20 minutes to get to the hospital! Britton yelling from her room, "Can you take that off speaker, I'm trying to sleep." Dave went to tell her "Get up, your mom just got a liver"~ Brooke had a friend spending the night so we got them both up and had to take them to her friends house. Brooke had a test that day. I had nothing packed so I threw some stuff together and off we went. I was a nervous wreck!!