The last couple of days have been so unbelievable that I truly am in an alternate universe. The day before yesterday Randy’s numbers plummeted, and they decided that ECMO would be the best way to go to “bridge” Randy to transplant. The ECMO is taking the place, basically, of the lungs as far as oxygenating Randy’s body. It was all so scary, Randy’s brother had flown in the day before, and Randy’s dad came in just as the episode began. Everyone tells me that these people are miracle makers…all we need are lungs to have a miracle. Tomorrow is Randy’s birthday, and I want him to have lungs tomorrow, so he can take a nice deep breath. I know the road from transplant is hard, but we are up to it, and Randy is so strong and such a perfectionist he would be a UT Southwestern Lung Transplant poster boy. We just need the lungs.
He was wakeful when I went in this morning….but he is being given medications so he will not remember any of this….when he wakes up with lungs he will be surprised at how much time has passed. I do believe he heard my voice, our usual, “good morning my darling” cheerful greeting. I told him he was doing great, his SATs are good, his labs are good….he just needs to keep it up until the lungs come. I was twenty when we met….married at 21, and we have grown up together, more or less….whatever has happened, good or bad, we have been together through it. Even when we’ve been mad at each other, it is only the other one who can truly give us comfort. Does that make sense? We are two pieces of the same two piece puzzle. I pray, I beg, I ask the universe, for lungs, and to bless the donor.