The Call

Sunday morning, a little after 8 Dave and my mom got THE call!

They said they had a likely match and they'd call back in an hour with more info. Sure enough, an hour later they called back and said it was good to go and to head to the hospital! Originally surgery was scheduled for 2 p.m.

They got down to the hospital and it was a little after 11 before they got into a room, and my mom was able to begin sending out texts to people letting them know the good news! A few friends even made it down to the hospital to be with them before he went into surgery. They did a few last minute tests and got situated.

It was a little after 4 before they finally were able to come and get him, they were pretty busy that day. The surgeon ran into a few "roadblocks", but the surgery was an overall success and was finished with the actual surgery a little after 10 p.m. They continued to sew him up after that before he got moved back to his original room. The "roadblocks" were a problem with the head of the pancreas "pinking up", which the surgeon ended up cutting off after it did not turn in the time he would have liked. Apparently, this was a procedure he was very familiar with and used to do routinely so that was good to know. Also, the other was whoever cut the arteries from the donor cut them a little short, so that slowed him down a bit. Nothing that couldn't be overcome though. Thankfully, my mom had some great friends who came down and spent the day with her while she waited in the waiting room for any information the nurses and doctors could pass down to them.

Tibor, Audra, and I got there at some point in the evening and stayed there a while. After the surgery was pronounced a success, my mom and I stayed and waited to see Dave while everyone else went home. A little after midnight they finally let us know they were ready for us to see him. We didn't stay long, just wanted to make sure he was awake. He looked so relieved/happy to see my mom but was struggling to stay awake so we left to let him and his body get some rest!