At 12:03 p.m. today, Wednesday, September 5, 2012, we got the call. The call that would change our lives forever. Tampa General Hospital called to let us know they had a donor for Gary's much anticipated lung transplant. We had twenty minutes to get into the truck and on the road...it takes Gary ten minutes to shut his work computer down! I called our friend, Jacque, who had agreed to take care of the animals, and threw a few things together and we were out the door.
We arrived at the hospital at 3:00 (as promised). Admitting was waiting for us as were the nurses. Gary was up the elevator, into a room and getting prepped for surgery. At 5:00 we got word that the transplant was a go with one problem. The left lung of the donor was damaged, so instead of a bilateral transplant, Gary would only have his right lung transplanted. I kissed him good luck in the foyer of the OR at 5:45 and went to the waiting room to make the calls to let family know he was in surgery. They said to expect a four or five hour wait. Our friend, Sandra made the two hour drive to sit with me. At 9:00 the surgeon came in and gave us the wonderful news that Gary's surgery was a success, everything looked perfect and that the nurses would be out in a few hours to give a report before taking Gary to the ICU.
So, calls to family went out and Sandra and I wait for the nurses. Thank you for all the emails and leaving messages on the blog. I will not be able to be with Gary until Friday, but I can't wait to show him the messages and love sent our way. Until tomorrow...
