Saturday, one week after the phone call

One week ago today we got a phone call from the U of W transplant team. "We have a liver that is a match, are you running a temperature, do you have a cold, runny nose, are you ready to make the trip here?" It seems like at any time someone would say PRANK, but no it was real. I called Sarah as I threw stuff in the suitcase and got Tim's suit case. I got the glucose test kit, Tim got the insulin, I got the wound care kit and some food for Tim if his sugars got low. We were on the road in half and hour. We felt we did pretty good getting things together. In reality, there were no test strips in the kit (empty container) we had insulin but no syringes. We did not eat lunch, and Tim only brought two shirts, one pair of sweats only 2 underwear. Now that we are in the apartment we need a bit more than that.

How it started:

Tim and I were married in the early seventies, he has always been a romantic, in love with the cowboy ideal. We start there because of his romantic view lead him to be a volunteer fireman, first responder and an EMT. This was before gloves and volunteers handle body fluids. He had several times he used cpr to review someone, and sometimes when he worked until the doctor would tell them to stop. That is very likely when he picked up Hepatitis C. There is also the chance that the surgery in 1986 to repair a rotator cuff in his shoulder from the year that he actually worked as a cowboy. Either way the virus entered his blood system and grew silently until 2002 when I switched health care providers and we had to switch doctors. A required test with our new provider gave us the "news". After a year of interferon treatments with good results at first and then the virus count went up again. He allowed himself to become depressed and used alcohol to self medicate, and medicate, and... There are times in our lives that we do not see a path to get us out. Eventually he quite with the help of AA and some very negative experiences. We knew he had limited time and after being sober a great doctor got him to look at the possibility of a transplant. We were on the considered transplant list. Which means we had done the preliminary work and now were just waiting to get "sick" enough.
This last summer I watched as he got slower, more tired, forgetful. I was worried and asked him to check with his doctor. He went and got checked, but not much different. Then on the 28th of August I got home from work and a dental appointment. I thought it odd that the newspaper was still on the walk and the curtains still closed. I had planned to mow the lawn but thought I would check on Tim who I thought was napping. He was not in bed and I went into the bathroom to find him on the floor. He was moving, acting like he wanted to get up. I called him, he looked at me and rolled to his side. He then reached for me to help him up. I asked him who I was, no response. I then told him to lay down, I put a towel under his head and told him I was calling 911. It seemed like a long time before they came and they took us to the closest hospital. After we got there, they tried to put a tube down him to give him some medication without sedation. That was the worst. He was aware enough to yell stop and since the floor was short handed the nurse asked Sarah and I to hold his hands. The ER doctor tried also, I thought I was going to throw up. We were quite please when they came in and said they had no beds and would need to transfer him to another hospital. We got there Dean(Sarah's husband) and Jim (My dentist and Dean and Sarahs best friend) Prayed for him, giving him a blessing. Then the floor nurse took one look at him and sent him to CCU. When someone questioned her, she looked right at them and said this is not going to be questioned. He was going upstairs as fast as they could wheel the bed there. Once we got there things got a bit better, they sedated him and intibated him and he began to rest, and slip more into a hepatic coma. For 4 days he lay on the bed, breathing because a tube pushed air into his lungs. Sarah and I took turns staying with him, reading, talking or just tickling his arm. Sarah was with him when he first responded with a nod. She asked him if he wanted the tube out and he nodded yes! Then she asked him if he wanted to be in the hospital and he nodded NO! It seemed that every time he woke up I was away. Two days later I got a phone call from the hospital. The nurse said someone wanted to talk to me. "JUDY, Im done, take me home. It was still a week before we went home. Then on Sunday the 28th of September I was taking him for a sit outside. We noticed the wraps on his leg were wet and I remove part of them to see bright red skin and open sores. We decided we had to go to ER. We thought cellulitus but instead it was kidney failure. Two more weeks in the hospital, this time he looked better but was still very ill. Our GI doctor made a call to the U of W liver specialist. On the 28th of October we were at the UW hospital for a re-evaluation and surgery consultation. Through all of this we were told that we could expect several trips to ER, more hepatic comas, and a long wait before he would get a liver. Then on the 8th of November we got the phone call. We feel we have had several miracles, blessing and angels sitting with us through this. We have been fortunate to have friends and family that have supported us in many ways. The process seems long and hard but in reality we were only on the list for 10 days. We are very grateful for our chance for Tim to be healthy again. Sarah says he will walk up Badger mountain with her. He says he will do whatever it takes to be healthy again. We have changed our diet to low sodium low sugar, more organic, more fruits and vegetables, more fish, less red meat. Now we just have to get through the next three months.

That is where we have come from. It has been fraught with tears, fears, pain, and laughter. Tim brings laughter and love to my life. I am a very lucky woman, and we are a blessed family.