Health issues

While I was still in mourning over the tragic loss mah boys took in the Rose Bowl, I got a quickly dashed off email from my Dad saying they were off to the hopital for his transplant.

We knew he was on the list, but it's supposed to take years to get an organ. I don't have stats on it, but I'm pretty sure ~2 years is less than average. So we were all taken by surprise, especially since we were just there for Christmas, and there was no indication this was impending. If I had known, I certainly would have stayed.

My initial thought was, I guess we don't need to implement our crotch rocket giveaway to young men with type B+ blood in the Tampa area. I wonder if that's legal?

It all happened pretty quickly, and before I knew it, he had the heart of a 27 year old beating away inside him. That makes his heart younger than mine.

The great news is that he made it past the first 24 hours. Woohoo! When a body completely rejects a new organ, it does it right away, because the immune system depressants (drugs) can't stop the body's natural rejection in all cases. But it's been a couple days, so it looks like his new heart is fine. Whew! [wipes forehead]

The worst may be over, but he's not out of the woods yet. Being in the ICU with tubes all stuck in ya ain't a good thing, no matter how you look at it.

It's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me. When I knew he was going in and my friends were dragging my arm to go out, I had to make a decision. So I stayed home and read a book by the phone. On one hand it would have been to nice to take my mind off it, but I didn't want to forget about it.

About 100 things could have gone wrong in the next several hours, and whatever it was I said to him last would become our last words. Thankfully, those were an exchange of "I love you"s, but have you ever thought that out? What your last words were to someone? If you have, that means you knew were facing tragedy or potential tragedy.

I did a good job of keeping my spirits up, but a part of me crept in there that made me prepare for death. To be ready with a Plan B, if the unthinkable happened. Is that wrong? I don't think so, but it sure made me feel uncomfortable, like I was writing him off already. It's not fun to put yourself through the thought process of: Dad's dead, now what do you do? It makes it all alot more real.

I wasn't assuming he was going to die, I just wanted to be realistic about it. He may not make it. Everyone else in my family is too busy raising a hoard of munchkins or being a single Mom while doing it, so this kind of intra-family stuff falls on me. I need to be ready.

On the other hand, in every discussion I've ever had with him about this stuff, I've been overwhelmingly positive and never gave off one scintilla of doubt that this would conclude successfully. We planned things to do soon after the surgery, so he would have something to look forward to. I wanted him to have the best possible mental state going in. Even though he's made his own preparations for the worst, he doesn't need to know that so have I.



In other health related issues, man, you should see the size of the boogers coming out of my newly expanded nasal passages. Good lord. There's something grossly satisfying in knowing you've got something huge up there, and then finally snorking it out, and instantaneously regaining super nose. [sniiiiiiff] Ahhhhh! It's alot like finally getting the water out of your ear. But sloppier. I carry tissues around with me now. And I have a beauty of an old man nose honk. Ah... sweet progress.


I hope all is well with my honkies, and that the new year is treating you well so far. How well mine goes will be determined in the next couple weeks/months.