Hey yall! Ali here. Today we are doing our first ever guest blog! My husband, Kevin is sharing his perspective on what happened while in the waiting room during my transplant surgery. Since I was under anesthesia, this is my best way to share with yall the whole story. So without further ado....
I’m not sure what emotions I was feeling when the surgery team rolled her back. Was it happiness, since she was going to get a new liver? Was it worry, since she was fixing to undergo a very complex and long surgery? It was... really, a mix of everything. I always think of all the possibilities of what could go right or wrong, so I feel like I am prepared for multiple outcomes.
When I got back to the waiting room, my brother Devin, his wife Emily, and Ali’s mom were there, and after some waiting we played some card games to pass the time. More and more family started coming in to offer support and comfort through the procedure. I believe there about 10 of us there, which helped keep my mind busy.
The first call from the operating room came about 8:30 am, and they said she was doing good and the surgery had started. It was a waiting game from there. At 9:30 am, I got the second update. Again, “She’s doing good.” Hoping to get more information, but I went back to relay the information to the rest of the family. At 10:30 am, nothing. 11:30 am, nothing. All I could think was maybe they’ve been taking the liver out and putting the new one in? 12pm came around and I went up to the information counter to ask for an update. They called back, and again, she is doing good. That was a relief, but I still wanted more. At this point, the family next to us had received news that their family member wasn’t able to complete the surgery because of how complex it was. That is when I had to step out of the waiting room and go to the bathroom for a second by myself. To just process everything that was going on up to that point, if Ali were retelling this for me she would say I got a ‘little leaky’. At 1:30 pm, “She’s doing good.” 3pm is when the doctor came out. He led Ali’s mom and I went to a private room were he told us she had some complications. He said during her surgery they had the new liver in and then one of her big vessels detached. He proceeded to say that they fixed it and that they were closing her up now.
This wasn’t exactly the news we wanted to hear, but she was alive, and that’s what mattered. None of us knew the extent of what happened until later. Michelle (Ali’s mom) and I went to share the information. Lots of tears were shed from a lot of family members from the pure anxiety that was over all of us and then to hear that there had been complications was a little too much. It was so nice to be comforted by our family and friends as well. 3:30 pm came around and I got a call saying they were putting staples in. Another call came at 4 pm, saying she had moved to the ICU. Ali just went through a ten hour surgery, and this is where I felt the real struggles would start.
Comments
Post a Comment