General
Transplant Day-Share your experience
June 5, 2024
in General
How did you feel on the day that you got the call or when you knew your schedule date for your transplant had arrived?
I was placed on a medically necessary transplant list. I was told the day they upgraded my status to be ready at any moment notice. It was almost like I was preparing to have a baby.. My Transplant bag was sitting at the door. I know the moment that the phone call came in. I wasn’t feeling well. The nurse that called me said are you ready. I said I guess but I had absolutely no idea who I was talking to. The next words that she said to me, your kidney is ready. I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulder and all I knew at that moment, I was going to live. . I know it was the most incredible moment of my life.
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Transplant Patient
My first transplant (with my living donor) I don’t think it fully sunk in that it was happening. And then when I was re-transplanted 3 days later I had no idea, since I wasn’t woken up between the surgeries. So I woke up weeks later to the insane reality that I’d had 2 transplants and more major surgeries within the span of a month.
i didn’t have a getting the call moment. Even with my living donor, I knew before I ever got a call.
My first call came in, I was in the shower and didn't hear my phone. The center called my mother who lives in another state, she called me, and then called my husband, who called me. By the time I was out of the shower my husband was driving home from work (its only 3 miles from our house) and I was out of the shower, wrapped in a towel, on the phone with the transplant coordinator. I was throwing things into a bag, I was not ready yet... I really thought I had another year. That one didn't work out, and knowing that I was the second offer on those organs I felt guilty that I was on day 20 since a positive COVID test and couldn't go to the hospital. I felt guilty that these organs had been offered to two people and the "time limit" was running out. Later I did find out that there was still a successful transplant from that offer. My second call came in, and I spent the night in a make-shift room (aka a conference room) at the hospital. They were full. It was strange, overwhelming, and terrifying. That offer also was not valid as the pancreas was not viable so the kidney went to someone else. My THIRD call was on a Thursday night. I was getting ready for bed, and they presented me with the offer, I accepted and was told to get some rest and wait further details. I went to work on Friday to help train someone, went home got my husband and we went to the hospital. We waited at the hospital until Sunday. I felt like I could tell you everything there was to know about the hospital those two days. We walked all over the campus, up and down the halls. Both inside and outside. Finally it was time. I was calm, collected, and thankful for the "trial runs" we had before. It was not until they were ready to wheel me back that I was scared out of my ever loving mind. I cried, they waited a little bit for me to settle in. Then I was ready. I was so nervous. I sat up on the gurney when I was wheeled into the operating room. I work in medical surgical technology, and we work with the hospital I was having my transplant done at. I was looking all around the room at equipment, people's faces, and everything. When I saw my surgeon in the corner of the room, prepping with her surgical resident I waved and said "hello!!" and then, I was ready I knew this was going to be successful, and I was at peace. Or, maybe drugs started to kick in. :) Either way, it was a good mental place to be in.
We all have such amazing stories. The journey was not easy, but it has led us here to connect to one another to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I received my double lung transplant in 2002. I had been on supplemental O2 for 8 years, on disability for 7 years and on the transplant waitlist for 5. It was a different world back then.
When I got the call, I wasn’t expecting it. Having waited so long, I hoped I might get the call someday, but wasn’t sure if it would actually happen. They said they had lungs for me and asked if I was ready to come and get my transplant. I told him I needed time to think about it. They said fine, they would hold the line. It’s not really what I meant! What I meant was I need hours to call all my friends and say “I’m being offered Lungs, but there’s like a 10 to 15% chance I’ll never see you again. Somebody tell me what to do”. But there was no time to call anyone. I had to make up my own mind. Crazy thoughts, right? Spinning around in my head. and then… I recognized that I hadn’t smiled in over 6 months because I’d simply run out of reasons to.
So I said yes.
@Len You are a warrior… we are so happy you said yes. I hope you have 6 million reasons to smile now.
My meld score was getting really bad and my pre transplant coordinator told me I had moved up on the list. That was 2 weeks before my call. I received my call on Saturday afternoon, 2-20-2020. Our son actually took the call,I was getting ready to shower. I live 3 hours away and they told me I had 4 hours to get there. Luckily my bags were pack and my husband quickly packed a few things and off we went. I made phone calls on our way to my closest family and friends and made sure everyone remembered the plans I had prepared months before the call. tte traffic was lite so we made really good time. The first liver was too large for me so I was told to wait another was on the way. This gave my sister-in-law and my “ sister” time to see me before I went to surgery. Around 6:00 Sunday morning I was rolled into surgery. 2-21-2020 after watching the most beautiful sunrise.
I had a living donor, so the transplant team contacted me a couple weeks pre-transplant to inform me i had a match. I barely knew my LD and definitely didn't know she was planning to give me part of her liver. i was shocked. i kept telling the person on the phone that she must be mistaken, she must have contacted the wrong person but she finally convinced me. ☺️
@jennifermn and @Deb Thank you for sharing. It’s so nice to hear the different ways we were notified that our journey was about to change.
I got a call from my mother's coordinator asking if a certain surgery date would work. It was a complete surprise bc my mom's testing hadn't finished, I understood my own coordinator was to update me/give me instructions, we understood the surgeries wouldn't take place for closer to 2 months, but most importantly, neither of us had even been told I was a match yet! I / we never heard "You're a Match, Congratulations!" -- so to jump right past that to scheduling felt anti-climactic and full of pressure as the coordinator wanted an answer on the spot. It also kicked off days/wks of confusion bc my team didn't know and indeed, my mom needed more testing, so the surgery date moved a few times. On a bright note though, I got to be the one to tell my mom we were a match so we got to be stunned, incredulous, confused, and tentatively optimistic together.
I was in the hospital that morning where I had lived for 10 months. My fav resident came in said we have your liver. I facetimed my sister and she thought I was hallucinating per usual and Liam said “no Robin, it’s real”. I had been offered 5 livers previously but none of them worked for a variety of reasons. I was even in the OR being prepped for surgery when a doc came in a said sorry, but it was not the right liver for me. The memory is Beth blurring, I had severe encephalopathy for almost 2) years. But it was thrilling and terrifying and one of the happiest days of my life.
TheMac, I’m so happy for you and all of the TP stories shared.
Good Luck to all of you..💚
My kidney was functioning at 6%. It was 5 am and I was standing in the parking lot of the transplant center with my dad (my donor), my mom, my boyfriend at the time, and his family, who all donated blood before the surgery. And I started to panic. I went into full panic mode and I was changing my mind about the surgery in the parking lot! Once everyone calmed me down we all checked into the ICU. It was 2006 and I was 24 so there still wasn't a lot of info on the internet and I didn't know a single person that ever had a transplant. So I was putting all my faith in my doctors.
My dad was taken away right away while they prepared me for surgery. Once I was taken into the elevator to the surgery floor I panicked again, lol. The anesthesiologist put some headphones on me and said he was giving me a margarita. I woke up with a new kidney.