Monday Morning

We were headed to Tucson and began praying over the coming events. It hit both of us that a family somewhere was dealing with a very real loss and Rex began to pray over that family. God's peace and comfort was very real to both of us during our two and a half hour car ride to Tucson. Just before 4 am we arrived at University Medical Center and were taken to ICU to wait. We were told that until one of the surgeons actually layed hands and eyes on the donor heart we were in stand by mode and that this could be a dry run and be sent home if there was anything wrong with the heart. At 7 we were moved to the operating room holding area where Rex was prepped for surgury. He had two IV lines ready to go and we were looking at possibly beginning the process in less than an hour. Shortly after we were told that the harvest team was just leaving and that they would arrive in San Jose in a few hours and we would know more than. San Jose! Did I hear that correctly? We couldn't believe our ears. For those of you that don't know we moved to Arizona from San Jose. We were then moved back upstairs to the ICU to wait for word. We prayed that the heart would be healty and waited. Finally, at 11 am we got word the heart looks great! We prayed for one more time and at about noon they took Rex to the OR. At 3 pm they called me to let me know they had Rex on bypass and the heart had arrived they were beginning the transplant. Just before 6pm Dr. Smith came out to the waiting room to tell me everything went great and that I would be able to see him in a short while. I was overjoyed and a little nervous to see him. I had been let known that there would be many tubes and such still connected. At 6:30 I was able to finally see Rex. His color looked amazing! He was still very sedated and had a breathing tube in, but he looked great. My amazing sister arrived later that night and was able to be a great support to me while I tried to be strong for Rex. He was in and out of consciousness most of the night. Rex developed a fever and experienced some tachycardia (irregular, fast heart beats) over the course of the night. I was assured these were expected. For me, this was the scarriest part of the whole process to date. God is good and has given us both an incredible sense of peace and calm.