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The last month has been crazy. That might be an understatement. I have trouble believing that anyone reading this post doesn’t already know, but I suppose for the sake of completeness… I am the proud owner of a new liver. My original was reasonably good to me; lasting nearly 28 years. But a deal came up that I just couldn’t really pass by. I suppose I could start at the beginning of my last weekend with my old liver.

Let’s start at the end of the week of August 31. Work had just leased a new (or should I say “another”) building, and so everyone was getting switched around deskwise. However, it takes time to set up all the desks. So there would be a couple days where we would have no office space set up in the office. I had the option of trying to find my own desk in one of the other buildings or perhaps working from home for a day or two. I’m not too keen on working from home (the kiddos are a bit of a distraction). We decided to take a different route.

Since it also happened to be a holiday weekend I had decided to take a couple additional days off. This worked nicely since we have a deck that needs building. I spent the week or two before recruiting friends and family. We had a plan and were ready to go forward… Monday morning, hell or high water. We had a little bit of wood that we needed to buy, so me and my dad were going to go out on Sunday and make sure everything was squared away.

The Scarlett Pimpernell was still running, and I had a couple shows over the weekend. I had some library books that were due and some others that I wanted to check out. I needed to run some other errands as well. All in all though, the weekend started out pretty darn good. I slept in on Friday… well, I slept in as much as I ever do… 9:00 tops. Woke up, got ready and went and took care of my errands. Saturday rolls around and I don’t have much going on in the morning, but I have two shows in the evening. I head out in the afternoon and the first show goes well. Have a nice dinner of fried chicken and some great dinner rolls. The second show starts up and things are still going pretty good.

I’m not sure I even remember what cue it was during, but at some point during the night I got “the phone call”. I feel my phone vibrate and I don’t recognize the number. I answer the phone and the conversation goes something like this:

Me: Hello
Other Party: Hello, this is Barbara from Organ Procurment (or something like this). Is this Stuart Wilde?
Me: Oh… Yes
Barbara: Yes. Mister Wilde, we have a potential liver for you.

At this point I nearly drop my phone down the spotlight hole. I have been expecting a call like this for the last six months or so, but not really expecting. My numbers have been down and as far as I am able to guess (looking at the waiting list website data) there are a good number of people ahead of me. Apparently, not so many. The conversation goes on with Barbara explaining that they need me to go to the ER at the IMC as soon as possible and they will get me checked in.

I get on headset and tell Bryant (the spotlight operator) that “I.. uh… have to go… they have a liver for me”. Bryant starts to freak out a little bit… he can’t believe I even took the time to explain over headset that I needed to leave.
I start heading downstairs. Along the way I call Shilo and let her know. She starts to freak out… I tell her I am on my way home and to get things ready. I get downstairs at the theater and go and say my goodbyes to everyone (and receive a bunch of “good lucks” and “this is so cool” comments from the other techs). I then head out the door and make my second phone call to my mom. She’s out riding her bike with my younger brother (mind you, it’s like 8:30 at night… well past sundown).

I make my third call to my younger brother. He picks up the phone and asks what’s up. He’s a little agitated that I am calling… he is out riding a bike. I tell him that I need to talk to mom, they have a liver for me. I hear him yelling for my mom… “MOM! STOP!!!! THEY HAVE A LIVER FOR STU!!!” I wish that I could have been there to see the about face that my mom must have made. She’s been riding her bike for a little while now, but it’s a big cruiser bike and I have trouble believing that she would be able to make a super quick turn around… but I imagine that she attempted one.

At this point I am getting into my car and heading out the parking lot… it’s been about 5 minutes since I got the call. I know that I need to be calm, but it’s difficult to say the least. I make a few more phone calls… one to a work buddy, one to my gastroenterologist, a couple more that I’m not sure I remember. Before I know it I am on the road in front of my house. I’m following a truck… ok, that’s not fair, I am tailing a truck. They pull over to the side and I pass, they then proceed to swing out behind me and tail me the rest of the way down the road. I’m a little irritated… “if they had any idea where I was headed…” But I have other things that I am worrying about.

I get home.

Shilo is getting a bag together and getting the kids settled down. Steve (my father-in-law) was already at our house. Unfortunately, he also has his other grandchildren, Silas and Gideon. To top things off, Darby is out grocery shopping. She should be back soon, but he’s going to be stuck with four kids under the age of five for some undetermined length of time. Oh yeah, Steve has their cell-phone so there isn’t any way to get in touch with her until she gets back to our house. After all of that though, he is still ok watching them.
We make a stop at our neighbor’s house to let them know that we might be out of our house for a few days… weeks maybe and ask if they can keep an eye on things. They are more than willing to help us out and they wish us the best and promise to keep us in their prayers. We say goodbye, get in the car and head to the hospital. I’ve calmed down considerably, even though it’s only been about 30 minutes since I got the call.

We get to the ER and my parents are already there. I check in at the desk and he asks me to have a seat while he figures out what they want me to do. We all sit down and start waiting. We chat for a few minutes and the receptionist calls us over. He says that they want me to go straight up to the transplant floor, and he gives us some directions. We head out.
We go up to the 10th floor and stop at the nurse’s station. I explain that I am Stuart Wilde and I think that I am the guy getting a new liver. She checks a couple things and calls a nurse over and tells her to take me to room 15. As were walking over, the nurse introduces herself as Donna and explains that she is going to be my nurse for the night. The first question that I have is “what number am I”. It’s not uncommon for the transplant group to call in a group of people when they get an organ. If something comes up with any of the other patients… a cold, perhaps the can’t make it on time, maybe the liver turns out to be the wrong size… they have back-ups. Her response to my question is “you are number one and only”. All of the sudden things start to get a little bit more serious. I’m not a backup.

Donna gets us situated in our room and tells us that it’s going to be a little while. She explains that there are two surgeons that will be doing the procedure, and that one is up in Ogden getting the new liver. She is going to do a number of tests and make sure that the new liver looks good. As soon as she gives the go-ahead, the other surgeon will start the procedure on me. While she is driving down with the new liver they will be extracting my old liver. That seems a little scary to me. What if something happens in that time between… Donna assures me that in all of the years that she has been doing transplant nursing, she has only seen a single case where they opened up a patient and didn’t do the transplant. That does a lot to calm my nerves. We ask if she has any idea of when all this is going to take place. Nothing is set in stone… it all depends on how things go up north. But she says the extraction is supposed to start in like 45 minutes and it could take an hour or two. But I should expect to be ready to go down as soon as 2 hours or possibly 5-6 hours… it all depends on any number of other things.

Fortunately, the wait isn’t long. I honestly don’t remember what time they came down to take me down, but it wasn’t very long. I say goodbye to the people still left in my room, my mom and wife won’t hear nothing about “goodbye” though. They’re following me down the elevator as long as they can. The nurse is ok with that. In fact, that’s probably what they expect.
At some point, I switch beds to a simple transport type bed. I don’t remember if it was in the room on the 10th floor or if it was after that. We ride the elevator down to the floor where the operating rooms are located. The nurse explains that now is the real goodbye. The waiting room is down the hall this direction and I’m going to be heading the other direction. I give my mom a kiss and say goodbye. I then give Shilo a hug and kiss goodbye and say that I love her. I am not worried about not seeing her again, but then again I am a little worried. This isn’t an easy surgery… Anyway, I try to make sure that the last thing I tell her is that I love her.

The nurse then wheels me through the door and we are in the halls in front of the operating room. It’s one or two in the morning, so this part of the hospital is nearly empty. I see a couple people walking around in scrubs going in and out of the OR. I talk with a couple… a couple have me sign some consent type forms… The anesthesiologist comes out and explains a little bit about what is going to happen from his end. He explains some of the risks, asks about my allergies, and has me sign a couple more forms.

Then I wait in the hall.

…

And wait…

And wait a little more.

And then the waiting is over. The wheel me into the OR and transfer me from the bed I was riding in to the OR table. It’s a much skinnier bed. The get me a couple blankets (the room is remarkably cold), and make me as comfortable as they can. The room is full of people, some of whom I recognize. I see the nurses and anesthesiologist. I know the name of my surgeons and I see a gentleman who looks like he might be a Dr. Fujita. I ask if that’s who it is, and it is. I introduce myself and he does the same. They strap me in and the anesthesiologist explains that they are going to give me some drugs to sedate me (the same drugs that I get when I have scopes) and then they will start the general anesthesiology. He’s giving me the drugs as he is telling me this and the room starts spinning. I do my best to hang on… but, you can’t fight these drugs.

I wake up and so begins my new life.