My wife, Jana had her transplant 3 years ago.  We relocated from Florida and have made North Carolina our permanent home.  She was twenty nine years old when she had her transplant and it was extremely complicated due to her underlying condition.  She spent four months in the hospital with most of that in ICU.  We celebrated our one year anniversary in a room on the seventh floor.  Like everyone, she was released with IV’s and medicines and sent home with me in tow as her nurse.  Together, we figured out a system and she regained her strength and our life returned gradually.

Being a caregiver to someone you love is not easy.  Few things of worth in life come easy.  Any caregiver embarking on this journey with a loved one (and to do this, you do love them) will be told what to expect and how difficult it will be and that’s all true.  Nothing about it is fun. It’s tiresome, heartbreaking and all out terrifying at times.  It’s more than that though.  This experience can forge a bond worthy of the promise “Until death do us part”.     

When you get married, and you say “In sickness and in health”, you don’t really think about it.  Yeah you love her, you wouldn’t be marring her if you didn’t right?  She knows you love her because you tell her you do every time you hang up the phone or head off to work.  Well now you’re going to show her you do.  She’s going to know how much you love her every time she sees you coming down that hospital corridor.  Every time that alarm goes off at three in the morning and you get up to give her an IV treatment she is going to know that your love is the real one.  You will see the best in each other, and the worst.  She’ll start to believe you when you tell her everything will be ok.  She’ll believe you because she knows now that you will do everything you can.  Most importantly, she knows you're there and she’s not alone.  Forever, all she needs to do is look into your eyes to know you love her.  Indeed, you are her “bridge over troubled water”.   If you believe God made you for a reason then what better reason than this. 

We will be celebrating our four year wedding anniversary this August.  She never was able to come off the oxygen.  She deals with that well.  I still take care of her and she takes care of me.  Although we both wish she wasn’t sick, there are still avenues of this journey that we wouldn’t change for the world.  So just remember, it’s not all gloomy.  Focus on your mission for now and whatever the outcome, this too will pass.

Eric Sheets.

By Eric Sheets

“I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do
the something that I can do.”

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