A Second Chance at Life: Part 2 - "The Surgery"

As I recall the events that lead up to the liver transplant in 2006, I am amazed at how slowly the day progressed.  Prior to that day I imagined a phone call interrupting the normal flow of family life, followed by a mad rush out of the house into the van.  I could see us flying down the country roads onto the highway making great time as we drove across the state of Wisconsin, only to be stopped briefly by an empathetic state trooper who so kindly gave us a police escort the rest of the way. I expected a quick good-bye at the hospital as they rushed Ken off to surgery to receive the transplant.

Instead, we received the first call from the transplant coordinator at 3am, followed by a second call at 6am on July 30^th.  We knew that Ken was in the top five on the transplant list so we already had most of our bags packed for the call, much like we did when expecting our children to be born.  Even though most things were ready to go we did not go back to bed after receiving the first call.  Once we got confirmation to start driving to the hospital we got in the van and headed south.
 
It was a rainy morning so logic set in and I decided to drive the speed limit because it made no sense to become an organ donor on the way to receive a transplant!  We made it to Oshkosh by 8am and the EAA Airventure traffic on the road was minimal, so we passed by the thousands of campers with no problem.

We arrived to the hospital by 10am.  We were met there by several family members and friends.  Then we hurried up and waited.  Ken was actually the fifth transplant of the day so he was taken at 5pm into the surgery.  We waited in the surgical family room all night.  Around 2 am on July 31, I received a phone call from the operating room that the transplant had just taken place!  So this is the day that actually marks the eighth year anniversary of Ken's first liver transplant.