My school week consisted of just Monday and Tuesday this week. I’m attending SIGCSE for the remainder of the week to promote the Imagine Cup to CS Educators. Malisa picked me up from DePauw Tuesday night to make for an easier commute to the airport come Wednesday morning. With it essentially being a Friday, Malisa and John declared it a Big Bang Theory marathon night. As marathon style is the only way I’ve watched the Big Bang Theory, I was totally okay with this.
We watched Season 2, which I didn’t realize is the same season I marathoned before until the end of the first disk. Around 11 PM, after switching to the second disk, my phone began to rang. Malisa and John were laughing and talking about the end of an episode. I went from in the moment to being outside it when I saw “Kevin (Eve’s sist…” on my phone.
Kevin is my uncle Rick’s sister-in-law. We exchanged numbers last Saturday, since she lives a town away from DePauw and could give me a ride to the hospital come when Rick is matched with a heart. It was the only reason she would be calling me.
They found a heart. They found a fucking heart. A heart!
I was flying to Milwaukee at 10 AM!
I had to hang up, because I needed my parents to tell me what to do.
When my dad picked up, he was totally calm. I had to double check that he knew. He told me to still go to Milwaukee, which I took to mean to stay put. I made him put Mom on the phone to see if she would say the same thing; she did. We discussed how my mom didn’t feel well. How today was Tuesday, so Dad had already been to Indy once today since Tuesdays have been his visit Rick days. Even though we knew Dad was going back, Mom said how he hadn’t decided yet. I hung up to call Kevin to let her know I was staying put. Mom was calling my sister to let her know of the news.
I returned to living room to tell Malisa and John. I sat back down and sent text messages as I waited for AJ to find out so I could send happy day tweets and update my Facebook status.
My 15 year old brother updated his status to say he was going to Indy and shortly thereafter I heard from AJ. She had been in a practice room when my mom called. She didn’t initially put it together that it was 11 PM at home and answered nonchalantly. She returned to her boyfriend’s practice room in a bit of shock.
We talked as she ate. At that point we both were staying put. Eventually we both started texting people and she needed to go practice, so we hung up. I began thinking how if my brother was skipping school, since my parents left Fort Wayne around 11:15 PM, then I could go and someone could just drive me to the airport come morning.
My mom called to let me know everyone was going and I told her I wanted to go. I called Kevin and caught her in time to deviate from her path to pick me up. She’d already been pulled over by a cop. I told her to breathe. The cop was awesome and let her go after telling her to be safe especially with her child in the car.
I was wide awake waiting for Kevin to get there. We chatted the entire way to the hospital. My grandparents and Eve’s ex-step-mom were in the waiting room when we got there. Eve was with Rick. My aunt and uncle came in shortly thereafter. I called my parents and they were less than 20 minutes away.
We all gathered in Rick’s room. The nurses began the blood transfusions, which from what I understand were necessary since he had been taking blood thinners. At some point my cousins (Rick’s boys) got there. The nurses brought in extra chairs, including the shower chair.
Rick’s room had to be emptied of his personal belongings, which took a lot of bags since he’s been at Methodist for four months this week. Once the room was emptied and after Rick had to shave before the final sterilizing of his skin, the adults began to nod off. My mom, aunt, and uncle all fell asleep in chairs in Rick’s room. The cousins were still up, but I couldn’t leave my rolly chair, since my dad was leaning on it from the shower chair nodding in and out.
I can’t remember when I left, but I joined the grandparents in the small waiting room. That’s the room near the critical care for heart patients. At night, there are a number of people that sleep there. I sat down next to my grandpa and talked to him for a bit, but fell asleep pretty quickly once I wrapped up in my blanket. This was around either 4 or 5 AM. When I woke up, my grandpa was asleep. I moved to a chair by myself to curl up in a ball since my legs were asleep. I woke up again when my feet were asleep and moved to one of the love seats, where I slept until 7 AM.
At that time I returned to Rick’s room and found out that once they switched from the portable VAD to the giant hospital VAD, he’d be taken to the surgery wing. We began to gather in the hallway. My cousin Travis was trying to write a final blog post saying Rick was actually being taken to surgery when Rick’s bed was wheeled out. For a moment we couldn’t find my dad; he had run out to the car to eat breakfast. We followed Rick’s bed down the hallway. I had to fight back tears once or twice when the surgery wing came into view. This was real.
We said our good lucks and good byes. I had thanked Rick back in his room for getting this show on the road before I had to leave for the airport. As Rick was rolled through the doors and we began to all move to the surgery waiting room, the actual surgeon came up to Eve to say a few things. The heart wasn’t the perfect match, but he needs it. He was well rested.
We all put down everything we were carrying. My mom and I grabbed breakfast. I ate just a bowl of Cocoa Puffs, because my mom wanted to leave at 8:15 AM for the airport. My dad went to buy my brother breakfast before we left. We joked that my brother may have ended up with $6 since my mom gave him money before my dad decided to go with him to pay.
Then we left for the airport. The closer we got to the airport, the more tired I got. I was just glad I was getting there before Malisa so I could drop my blanket off in her car. I fell asleep the moment the plane took off. I had already decided it was Malisa’s job to think for me today. We ate breakfast at the hotel, and I slept for five hours. (Actually, we both did.) I got texts while I was sleeping that said things were going well.
It wasn’t until dinner late tonight I finally talked to my mom about the surgery. It was during the Microsoft crew dinner, and someone was speaking to all of us when she called. Thinking about it now, I’m glad I was by the door, since I tore out of there to hear the details.
What a difference this had been. Finally it was all hope and not dread.
So now we wait. For good things. Finally.
New Blog: Hope At Last http://ow.ly/1gUdk