October 27, 2005
Happy 10th Birthday, Mom!
yes, you read that right...today, October 27, 2005, is my mom's unofficial 10th birthday...
see, chronologically, my mom was born on February 13, 1944, which makes her 61 years old...but 10 years ago today my mom was given a "new life" by one very unselfish woman who decided that when she passed from this life, her organs could be shared to help many others continue to live their lives
my mom was given a new heart on this day back in 1995...i remember it clear as a bell, and i remember the days leading up to it just as clear...after quintuple bypass surgery in september, my mom was admitted back into the hospital with 300 BPM's and after being stabilized was held in ICU for a few days...once she seemed to be OK she was moved out of ICU and into a normal room, but it all seemed just as she was moved out of ICU, she had to be moved back...she kept having attacks of arrhythmia and had to be defibbed to stabilize her heartbeat.....the constant defibbing and arrhythmia attacks just deteriorated her heart and the only solution the doctors could see was a heart transplant....so my mother was put on the list as a high-priority patient (a few more arrhythmias and defibs and she wouldn't have made it) we were called into a conference with the transplant coordinator who handed my dad a pager and let us know that as soon as a heart was available, he would page us...and from there it would be just a matter of waiting...
so my dad had the pager and my sisters and i went about our normal (as much as possible) lives and waited...36 hours later i was in a night math class at the junior college taking an algebra test when we were interrupted by the campus police...he asked if there was a "my name" in class and the first thing that went through my head was Oh shit! Someone stole my car!! haha...luckily that wasn't it...but i met him in the hallway and he had asked me if i knew who "my sister's name" was and i told him she was my sister (i'm confused at this point)...he told me that she said i needed to get to the hospital ASAP, something about a heart for my mom....
at that point my knees buckled and i fell to the ground in tears...he caught me and my math professor told me to forget about the test and just go, i could make it up later....needless to say i drove like a bat out of hell and got to the hospital to find out that a woman in Arlington, TX had been in a car accident and was declared brain-dead...it would be a few hours for them to harvest her organs and fly the heart down to Houston and as soon as it arrived they would be back to Mom's room to fetch her for surgery
some hours later (very early in the morning) staff came to wheel my mom's bed down to surgery and we rode to the third floor with her...two sets of doors opened and she disappeared through the opposite side we waved as she said goodbye and i told her "No, we'll see you later."
the waiting game is so hard...hours and hours passed...
i went to the church chapel and sat, trying not to cry...as i was sitting there, a beautiful woman appeared from nowhere it seemed...she was african-american, dressed all in white and she had very bright eyes...she asked me if everything was alright and i told her that my mom was in surgery for a heart transplant and i just felt the chapel was the right place to be...she sat down next to me and cradled my head to her chest and said a prayer for my mom, then she rocked me while humming a hymn...after awhile she stopped and smiled at me and said everything would be alright...i thanked her then started to wipe the tears from my eyes, and the next time i looked up she was gone...i had never seen her again....to this day i believe she was an angel...maybe that's silly to you, but that's what i believe
nevertheless, several hours later we were given good news from the surgeon and Mom was taken to ICU for recovery...and, well...she's still here to tell all...
two weeks later she was home from the hospital and i remember one night lying next to her while she was in bed...my ear was against her back and i could hear that woman's heart beating...beating like it was my mom's own heart, which now it is...and i couldn't help but cry...cry because that poor woman's family wouldn't be able to spend anymore holidays or birthdays or just days in general with her...cry because she made the selfless decision to be an organ donor so that my mom could live in her place...sometimes i wonder about that woman's family and how they are doing...wondering if they realize that part of her is still living...living inside my mom...and if that's of any comfort to them...
because of this my whole family has decided to be donors...knowing that we'd be helping so many people to live after we've gone...it just feels right...one person can save up to 50 people...that's amazing to me...if i can give someone else's loved one a longer life, then by all means...where i'm going, i'm not gonna need my organs anyway, right? :-)
so yeah...Happy Birthday, Mom...here's to another 10-20 years...
yes, you read that right...today, October 27, 2005, is my mom's unofficial 10th birthday...
see, chronologically, my mom was born on February 13, 1944, which makes her 61 years old...but 10 years ago today my mom was given a "new life" by one very unselfish woman who decided that when she passed from this life, her organs could be shared to help many others continue to live their lives
my mom was given a new heart on this day back in 1995...i remember it clear as a bell, and i remember the days leading up to it just as clear...after quintuple bypass surgery in september, my mom was admitted back into the hospital with 300 BPM's and after being stabilized was held in ICU for a few days...once she seemed to be OK she was moved out of ICU and into a normal room, but it all seemed just as she was moved out of ICU, she had to be moved back...she kept having attacks of arrhythmia and had to be defibbed to stabilize her heartbeat.....the constant defibbing and arrhythmia attacks just deteriorated her heart and the only solution the doctors could see was a heart transplant....so my mother was put on the list as a high-priority patient (a few more arrhythmias and defibs and she wouldn't have made it) we were called into a conference with the transplant coordinator who handed my dad a pager and let us know that as soon as a heart was available, he would page us...and from there it would be just a matter of waiting...
so my dad had the pager and my sisters and i went about our normal (as much as possible) lives and waited...36 hours later i was in a night math class at the junior college taking an algebra test when we were interrupted by the campus police...he asked if there was a "my name" in class and the first thing that went through my head was Oh shit! Someone stole my car!! haha...luckily that wasn't it...but i met him in the hallway and he had asked me if i knew who "my sister's name" was and i told him she was my sister (i'm confused at this point)...he told me that she said i needed to get to the hospital ASAP, something about a heart for my mom....
at that point my knees buckled and i fell to the ground in tears...he caught me and my math professor told me to forget about the test and just go, i could make it up later....needless to say i drove like a bat out of hell and got to the hospital to find out that a woman in Arlington, TX had been in a car accident and was declared brain-dead...it would be a few hours for them to harvest her organs and fly the heart down to Houston and as soon as it arrived they would be back to Mom's room to fetch her for surgery
some hours later (very early in the morning) staff came to wheel my mom's bed down to surgery and we rode to the third floor with her...two sets of doors opened and she disappeared through the opposite side we waved as she said goodbye and i told her "No, we'll see you later."
the waiting game is so hard...hours and hours passed...
i went to the church chapel and sat, trying not to cry...as i was sitting there, a beautiful woman appeared from nowhere it seemed...she was african-american, dressed all in white and she had very bright eyes...she asked me if everything was alright and i told her that my mom was in surgery for a heart transplant and i just felt the chapel was the right place to be...she sat down next to me and cradled my head to her chest and said a prayer for my mom, then she rocked me while humming a hymn...after awhile she stopped and smiled at me and said everything would be alright...i thanked her then started to wipe the tears from my eyes, and the next time i looked up she was gone...i had never seen her again....to this day i believe she was an angel...maybe that's silly to you, but that's what i believe
nevertheless, several hours later we were given good news from the surgeon and Mom was taken to ICU for recovery...and, well...she's still here to tell all...
two weeks later she was home from the hospital and i remember one night lying next to her while she was in bed...my ear was against her back and i could hear that woman's heart beating...beating like it was my mom's own heart, which now it is...and i couldn't help but cry...cry because that poor woman's family wouldn't be able to spend anymore holidays or birthdays or just days in general with her...cry because she made the selfless decision to be an organ donor so that my mom could live in her place...sometimes i wonder about that woman's family and how they are doing...wondering if they realize that part of her is still living...living inside my mom...and if that's of any comfort to them...
because of this my whole family has decided to be donors...knowing that we'd be helping so many people to live after we've gone...it just feels right...one person can save up to 50 people...that's amazing to me...if i can give someone else's loved one a longer life, then by all means...where i'm going, i'm not gonna need my organs anyway, right? :-)
so yeah...Happy Birthday, Mom...here's to another 10-20 years...