Duke Transplant Friends

On Nov. 7, I started running a fever of 103 and was admitted to the hospital. When I arrived, I couldn't walk from the car to the wheelchair by myself. My Mom had to help me. They ran some tests and took some blood cultures to figure out the source of the fever. That night, my blood pressure fell, my pulse rate increased, I had blurred vision and I became very short of breath. The physician on call had them prepare a room for me in the ICU. By morning, I started feeling better, and by the next afternoon, I was up doing two laps around the hallway. The physician who had been there the night before couldn't believe it. He said he was expecting to find me in ICU hooked up to a ventilator.

The night before transplant, the blood cultures came back and showed that I had a systemic yeast in my blood. This was so serious that they considered rescheduling the transplant again. Because they knew that I probably wouldn't make it if it was rescheduled, they agreed that transplant would take place on schedule, and they immediately started me on a medication for the infection. Casey stayed in my hospital room that night with Glenn and me, and it was a precious time for the three of us. At about 6 am, I started getting prepped for surgery, as did my mom and uncle. All 24 people had come back to be there with me as they rolled me into the OR. I had such a peace about me at that time. I remember a little about the OR, but they quickly sedated me. The surgery took about 7 1/2 hours and was performed by Dr. Duane Davis. My mom and uncle's surgeries took about two hours

During surgery, the surgeons removed both of my diseased lungs and replaced them with my Mom's left lower lobe and my uncle's right lower lobe. They had to turn the lobes sideways in my chest cavity so that they would fit properly. I now had two beautiful pink lobes that were oxygenating my blood perfectly. The surgeons were very pleased with the surgery and informed my friends and family that everything went well with my surgery and with my mom and uncle's surgeries. I was placed in the surgical ICU. The evening of the surgery, my sister was sitting outside of the ICU and the nurse ran out and told her that I was awake. They weren't expecting me to wake up until the next day, because of all of the anesthesia, so everyone was surprised to see me with my eyes wide open trying to talk. I had a breathing tube down my throat so I was very scared. Thankfully I don't remember waking up.

My first memory after surgery is about 24 hours later when I woke up in a lot of pain. I remember pleading with Glenn to get me pain medicine. I was very scared and wasn't sure if I had come through the surgery ok or not. Glenn reassured me that everything went well, and with the exception of a fever, I was doing better than expected. 48 hours after surgery I walked from the ICU to my room on the stepdown unit without oxygen. I had about 10 different IV medications running in, so the pole that the nurse pushed along beside me looked like a Christmas tree.

I remained in a lot of pain throughout the next week. I also had hallucinations, which was a side-effect of one of my anti-rejection medications. Glenn said I would sit up in bed and start talking to Casey who wasn't even in the room. I was very bloated because of the steroids I was taking, and I quickly gained 30 lbs. One of the antibiotics I was taking gave me severe diarrhea, so I was up and down to the bathroom all day long. Glenn was my nurse for the next three weeks. The only break he took was when my sister Renee was there. He was then able to spend some time with Casey, since her visits to my room had to be limited due to the risk of infection. She was in kindergarten at the time, and there was no telling what type of infections she had come in contact with.

The surgeon required me to walk laps around the hallway. It started out with two, quickly increased to ten and after two weeks, I was walking about thirty laps at a time. Glenn would make me walk even if I didn't feel like it, which was most of the time. He really pushed me, so that my recovery would be faster. I thought at the time a marathon for him would have been easier than my few laps around the floor. After 16 days, I was discharged from the hospital, and Glenn and I moved into an apartment near the hospital. I had to be readmitted five days later for another surgery. Since I had reflux disease, the risk of aspiration (inhaling food or liquid into the lungs) increased. This has been found to increase one's chance of rejection of the new lungs, so they surgically corrected this by placing five incisions in my abdomen to shrink the opening from my esophagus into my stomach. This surgery was extremely painful, and I was unable to hold down anything, including liquids, for a week afterward. My medications had to be crushed and put through my feeding tube.

By this time, my Mom had recovered enough from her surgery that she was able to come out and stay with me in the apartment. Glenn went back to work and my mother-in-law was at our house in Mooresville to help take care of Casey. My Dad had broken his ankle right before the transplant so he was unable to be with us at the time. My Mom's best friend stayed with us the first week back in the apartment, because I required a lot of care. It was a 24 hour job, and she and my Mom shared it. I had about 20 different medications that had to be taken at certain times, including IV medications and nebulized medications. My sugar had to be checked, insulin had to be given, my temperature had to be checked, I had to test my lung function everyday, and all of my dressings over my incisions had to be changed periodically. I also needed help dressing.

I was also going through rehabilitation at Duke's Center For Living. I had to be there four hours everyday. They only allowed you to miss if you were in the hospital. I had weight training, cardiovascular training and had to do floor exercises. I thought I would die the first week I was there.

Everyday when I got back to the apartment and I would take a two hour nap. When I woke up, I would start my evening meds, and would finish about midnight. The next day it would start all over. I didn't get much sleep because of the pain, and because of the discomfort from all of the swelling I had.

I was giving myself an injection of a bloodthinner everyday, because I had developed a blood clot where my IV was in my chest. I gave the injection too close to one of my abdominal incisions, and developed a hematoma. This is a very painful collection of blood at a particular site. I was in excruciating pain and had to be hospitalized for that for two days. When I was discharged from the hospital, I went back to the apartment, and started rehab again. I was still receiving plasmapheresis once a week in hopes that it would decrease my chance of rejection.

Glenn and Casey came to see me on weekends. At first, I was in so much pain that I couldn't really enjoy the visits, but eventually it became the highlight of my week. I was able to come home a few days before Christmas. It was so exciting to walk into my house after being gone for six weeks. My mother-in-law had decorated the entire house. I developed a stomach virus the week I was home, but was still able to enjoy Christmas with my family.

click here to continue reading Christy's story