Hometown Rankin - April & May 2016

Currently, there are more than 112,000 people in America waiting
for organ transplants. Unfortunately, people often die waiting for them.
Is it an epidemic? I think so. Is there something we can do about it?
Definitely! Since we can’t take our organs and tissues with us, why not
donate them so that others can live?
I’m clearly very passionate about this topic because organ donation
saved my life. Had I not received the gift of life from someone that
chose to donate, I wouldn’t be here today. I am a liver transplant
survivor. I owe my second chance at life to my unknown donor and
their family. They made one of the most selfless decisions possible in
their very darkest hour. That’s something I can never repay them for,
but I can still help others. So I plan to be an organ donor, too.
Let me tell you my story. My journey began Easter Sunday, April
24th, 2011. I hadn’t felt well for a while, but I just chalked it up to
working full time as a teacher’s assistant, taking 15 hours of online classes
through the University of Southern Mississippi, being a mother of two
girls who were then age 15 and 6, and being a wife to an amazing husband.
That’s enough to wear you down, right? Well, the week following
Easter, I went to the doctor three times and to the emergency room
once. Every time I’d be sent home with some type of new medicine to
try. I had started swelling really badly and my
eyes were turning yellow. I couldn’t keep
anything down and I was lethargic. Lots of
things were going wrong.
The following Monday, May 2nd, I was
instructed to call a GI doctor I’d been referred
to since my liver enzymes were extremely
elevated. My doctor had sent my medical file
to the GI folks over the weekend. So when I
called, the GI doctor said that he had looked
over my file and advised me to go straight to
Baptist Hospital.
Why? What was wrong? I thought
something wasn’t right, but everyone kept
dismissing it, so I did, too. What was so
urgent? Fear started to set in. So, I checked in to the hospital that
morning and got settled in; all the while seeking answers. Lots of tests
and two days later, my GI doctor told us that he wanted to send me to
Ochsner’s Hospital in New Orleans. He explained that they were used
to handling issues like this and that they had the best liver doctors
around. They were talking about a liver transplant. What? Me? Why?
I wasn’t a drinker. I haven’t ever done drugs or smoked. I didn’t do
anything to ruin my liver. This can’t be! Why in the world? Even
though I couldn’t wrap my head around it and had everyone praying
for no transplant, I was on my way.
Wednesday night, May 4th, I got to take my first-ever ride in an
ambulance and was headed to New Orleans. To say I was scared is an
understatement. More and more tests came and went. On Friday,
May 6th, I went in for a liver biopsy. This was getting even more serious.
By this time, I had gained over 40 pounds from swelling. I literally
looked like the Michelin Man–just yellow instead of white. Suspicions
were confirmed; my liver wasn’t working. I don’t remember anything
after getting onto the biopsy table until I woke up on Wednesday of
the following week. I had gone into a coma.
Looking back now, I don’t remember much at all about my stay at
Baptist or the beginning parts of my stay at Ochsner–so I never really
knew how dire the situation was. I truly believe that God knew I
couldn’t handle fear so He just put me to sleep. Unfortunately, that
meant that my husband, Richard, and my
mom, Mickey, took the brunt of the worry
and anxiety of what was going on.
On Sunday, May 8th, with me still in a
coma, my medical team came to visit my
family. They saw how my condition was
rapidly worsening and immediately put me
on the transplant list for a new liver. I was put
on the transplant list at 3:00 p.m. that day.
Monday morning at 10:00 a.m., my family
received a call that a liver had been found
and it was a match. Finding a matching
organ in 19 hours is absolutely unheard of.
God had intervened. Ochsner sent out a
helicopter team shortly thereafter to retrieve
the donated liver. At 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 10th, I was wheeled
into surgery to receive my new liver. Seven and a half hours later, I had
a new and improved, working organ. Praise God for my surgical team
Hometown Rankin • 65