I haven't blogged in a long time. So long that I haven't even updated our family photo to add our newest baby, Korey. There is little time for blogging now with the new baby but I felt I needed to write something special for today and if I had to lose an hour of sleep at night to do it I would. Please note that I am not a writer and don't pretend to be. I am just a mom who wants to get the stories of our experience out there. It was 5 years ago today that Kyle received his new heart. 5 years. It has gone so fast and yet so much has happened in those 5 years. Kyle is now 18 and a freshman in college. He is on his own and flourishing. 5 years ago as we went through the transplant experience with him he was only 13, still my little boy. There are so many special and wonderfully amazing stories to tell about our time in St. Louis. So many it would take me a long time to tell you all of them. I can tell you that if a person didn't believe in God and miracles before going through the our experience they for sure would afterwards. So many things that couldn't have been just coincidence happened.
We had got the call in the morning of December 4th that they had found a heart for Kyle. We were sent to the hospital where he spent the day doing tons of tests, blood work and procedures, all the time waiting to make sure the donor's heart would be compatible. Kenton and I sat in a little spot by ourselves in the quiet surgery waiting room that evening when we heard the helicopter come in, knowing it was probably the one carrying Kyle's new heart. He had already been in surgery for hours as they prepared him. Several of our family members where there too. Some of them were sleeping and the waiting room was so quiet compared to the hustle and bustle it had during the daytime. By 3:00 a.m. Kyle was out of surgery and our family went to their hotel rooms to get some sleep. Kenton and I went to the ICU to finally see Kyle. He still had tubes everywhere and was intubated so he could not talk. They wanted him to keep quiet and not talk but he was too excited. He kept trying to tell us something so we gave him a notebook.. He kept writing us messages. I still have that notebook. Those moments with him were life changing for us. He told me how warm he felt. ( I thought this was from his medication but now looking back wonder if he finally had a good heart pumping blood throughout his body, maybe that is why he felt warm). He told us how much he loved us. Some of the words he wrote to Kenton were so special. It was their conversation and I don't want to write it all down here but I think it was because of that conversation that we decided to have another baby. (Little did we know, we would get two!) Once we finally got Kyle to go back to sleep Kenton went back to the hotel to get some rest. I couldn't sleep. After the nurses left the room I just sat and watched Kyle sleep, like I had done so many times before. I saw a stethoscope hanging on the IV pole and couldn't help myself. I took it down, put it on and then put it on Kyle's chest to listen. The sound of a normal heart is what I heard. It was so quiet, rhythmic and beautiful. Tears rolled down my face for the 13 years of listening to sick heart were gone. 13 years of dealing with his illness passed by my eyes. I saw the moments when he was a baby and sick and I would lay by him with my hand on his chest so I could feel his heart beat as we slept so I would know he was OK. Gone were the days like when I took him to the ER and the doctor frantically asked, "Can you get the baby to stop crying so I can hear better, it sounds like a train wreck in there!" Hearing his new heart was one of my greatest life moments! Later after his transplant the nurses told me I smiled all day the day after his transplant. I am sure I did.
Today I still smiling. I am feeling so blessed and thankful that Kyle is doing as well as he is. My thoughts go to the donor family and I am so ever grateful for the choice that they made that day. I pray for them that they find peace and joy in their lives. I pray for others who are put in the situation to make a choice about donation. I especially pray for all the little kids who are there at St. Louis Children's waiting for their second chance at life. I ask that you pray for them too. There are so many of them. And I pray by telling some of our story, others will consider signing up to be an organ donor! Happy Heart Birthday Kyle!
