Is this time for real?

So yesterday, Shirley and I made our quarterly trip up to Seattle for the check-in with the transplant team.  A fun 400 mile round trip in rainy/snowy weather.  Fifteen hours after getting home, the transplant team called and said they had some viable lungs and that Shirley needed to get there ASAP.

When they called, Shirley was still returning from dropping the girls at school and I was at work. Within 20 minutes, we were both home, car gassed up and we were zipping back up I-5 for the hospital.  Shirley drove the first 40 or so miles, while I made calls to wrap things up at work and find someone to pick up the girls and make plans to have someone stay with them (more on that in a later post).  She mainly got really rainy, lousy whether with lots of road spray off the many trucks on the road, but she was flying despite the conditions..

When we switched just north of Woodland, things dried out and we continued to make good time.  Four times during the drive, the hospital called and asked for an update on our progress.  We made it from our driveway to the I-5 exit to the 520 bridge in exactly 2 and a half hours (fortunately without getting pulled over once).  Through the first three calls, they indicated we should call when we were 10 minutes out and they would have someone waiting to roll her right to the surgical wing.  On the final call, they changed tunes and said take your time.

And a good thing too, because as we turned on to 520, things came to a screeching halt.  We could see the hospital across the lake, but we could also see emergency vehicles on the drawbridge and no cars moving. Fifteen minutes later, we finally made it up to Montlake Drive and the first cop who was directing cars on a detour. We talked him in to letting us go and three more cops in helping stop traffic southbound on the bridge so that we could drive the wrong way and avoid the destroyed car that was blocking the northbound lanes.  It's amazing what folks will do for you when you say you have to get to the hospital for a transplant.

So we made it to the hospital and now we wait.  We waited for x-rays; and then a parade of folks have been  by to poke, prod, draw specimens and have her sign forms.  We've learned the delay is because they are still waiting for the liver recipient to get here.  When a transplant donor is found, there are lots of simultaneous surgeries as they do not want to waste any viable organs.  The latest word now is that surgery should begin around 11 pm.  The surgery is planned to take about nine hours.  There will be more posts to follow.

Please keep Shirley in your prayers.