Ahhh sitting in a chair

Today has been a very interesting day. One of our new friends in the liver transplant support group was called for his transplant this morning. He doesn't have a caregiver here right now, so our little community is picking up the slack.

He gave me a call this morning around 9am, I got to the hospital around 10:30am - we had a group meeting at 11, so I was already on my way. Then after our group session I went back to his room and found out that he was scheduled for the transplant at 4pm. I decided to stay with him at least until he was wheeled into surgery. As it turned out, at 4:30 it was determined that the liver was not going to work. At this time we had three of us from the support group in the room, so I left and went to our potluck dinner.

While at the potluck dinner I get a call - our patient was ready to leave his room - he was all dressed, the orders for him to leave were almost ready to be signed when he was told to get back into bed --- there was another liver available.

Since it was now 8pm, we decided that I would be the one to go back and stay with him once again, until he was wheeled into surgery. Hopefully this time all will be wonderful and he can get the transplant. Goodness.

I have to tell you, this man is just a hoot. He's telling me all kinds of stories about Louisiana - a state I know virtually nothing about - and telling me stories about his family, friends, neighbors. It's so very interesting.

He told me about...

feu follet - (m) n. phosphorous light which hovers over the ground in marshy areas; something delusive or misleading (from Latin "foolish fire") You can hear how to pronounce it here --- dictionarist

and how his grandmother wouldn't get out of the car because she saw this feu follet on her front porch one night.

There are a dozen more stories, but I think I'm going to turn off the light and let us both get some sleep. Hopefully by morning we will know whether or not he is getting a transplant. Fingers crossed :)

Have a lovely day!
Kristin

EDIT - at 9:15am on 9 April 2010 he was wheeled into surgery. I'll update this post again when he is back in his room. I have some friends from our support group coming to relieve me and I'm going to go home and get some sleep.