I have experienced a call from the hospital once before. It turned out to be what they call a “dry run”. January 21, 2011, yes over a year ago I got a call at 1:39 in the morning that there was a possible donor match and I needed to get to the hospital as soon as I could. I asked the man on the other end of the phone “what should I bring with me” his response was “your cell phone charger”. I guess he knows I will be in a lovely hospital gown for a while so clothes at that point weren’t needed. After a mad scramble, we rushed to the hospital. When we arrived at three in the morning I had no idea what to expect. The surgery was scheduled for 8:30a.m. and after a pre-op shower, x-ray, EKG, speaking with doctors, signing consent forms, etc. the surgery had been pushed back until 10:00a.m. The surgeon came in to tell us the lungs were not there yet but on their way and expected to be in surgery within half an hour….

10:30, 11:00, 11:30, waiting with anticipation….the surgeon came in at 11:45a.m. and said “I’m sorry, I can’t do the surgery today, the donor lungs are not healthy enough”. I said “thank you”.  Thank you for not going through with surgery because you saw something questionable. I knew I could trust and have confidence in the surgical team that they weren’t going through surgery with unacceptable lungs.

I was actually a little relieved. I had an awful head cold, we were very concerned about the effect it would have on the new lungs. That cold hit me hard. I ended up getting very sick, so I know it would have attacked the new lungs after surgery.

The “dry run” was a learning experience and I now know what to expect. It wasn’t the right day to get new lungs, the stars just weren’t lined up quite right but they will one of these days. I am looking forward to the next time I receive “the call”.