The call that’s literally ‘saved my life’!!
Before I start to write this I would like to dedicate it to someone whom I never got the chance to meet, why? Because they were too busy saving my life... this is for a friend, an angel it’s for my hero without whom I wouldn’t be here... My Donor.
I'm having a little trouble putting into words how I feel; the 10th of August was so dramatic, we had been at the football match Leeds United V Bradford City at Elland road by we I mean Mark, Jack and I. Leeds had won, it had been a good game, I struggled breathlessly back to the car afterwards sat down puffing on the inhaler when the phone went, it was 10pm on a Tuesday evening and my gut was telling me it wasn’t a social call. I was right it was the transplant coordinator telling me they had some good lungs and I needed to move quickly, well that’s when the drama started, I couldn’t move quickly I was stuck in traffic and had no idea where I was. The transplant coordinator told me to stay where I was she was going to send a police escort for me as we’d managed to give her a rough Idea of our location and of course the car details. . Time was passing quickly and there was no sight of any police so I and Mark made the decision to set off the traffic was clearing and we needed to move. The coordinator rang back so I told her of our decision and she said to ring back when I was 10 mins from home, so that’s what I did. But I assumed she meant Mark’s home, nope wrong again so after a hard cya later (mark couldn’t come as he had to look after Jack) off I zoomed home luckily it took only 10 mins but my gosh I pulled up and there was a first response car and ambulance all with the flashing blue lights going, peeping neighbours and me sat there thinking my days talk about drama...
After a few checks o2 levels etc, off we went in the ambulance, blue lights all the way... I had always said I never wanted all that fuss teach me for going to midweek football. So it was just me & my mum all the way to Newcastle it took us about 2 hours maybe a little less.
Once we arrived things happened very quickly, x-ray was done, blood was taken and I was told the lungs look very good on paper and as long as the retrieval team are happy I would be going to theatre.
About half an hour after this the coordinator came dashing in and her exact words were “so Sharee, do you fancy some new lungs?” I think I nodded that’s all I could do I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t get any words out, I had the excited/scared feeling running through me.
Then it all hit me like a freight train at 100 MPH. This was it my life in someone else’s hands, the hands of a surgeon who we shall call MR TOC, I didn’t know him, I was just another case to him, another number. What would I do if it all went drastically wrong? My mum was up here dealing with it alone, sat waiting for over 10 hours for the ordeal to be over. How do you truly put those feelings into words, imagine that was someone you loved, your family, your child could you describe it? Deal with it? I wanted to sit and cry I was that scared but I couldn’t afford to fall apart now, id got so far and I had to be strong for my mum so I grit my teeth and off I went to theatre. The last thing I did was look the anaesthetist in the eyes and I said to him please I'm begging you don’t let me die.
To be continued....
No comments:
Post a Comment