This past Monday, I contributed an article to my local MOPS newsletter (The MOPS Bucket). Our meeting focused on women's health and I felt this was extremely important. I decided I wanted to post it on the Blog. After receiving permission from my Mother-In-Law, I am sharing it with you. I hope it is informative and encouraging. God is SO Good!!!
LIFE SAVING MEASURES
BY: Theresa Crowell
I remember the day my dad took me to the DMV to get my
Driver’s License. I remember I was
wearing a black shirt from Disney World.
Nerves worried through me as I took the written test and the eye
test. Thankfully, I passed them both and
was answering the questions to get that valuable piece of plastic card. I remember the DMV lady asking me if I would
like to be an organ donor. I was so
excited and really only paying about half attention, so I told her yes, because
she was looking at me expectantly. I
hadn’t really thought through what that little red heart on a license meant and
what it would mean to my family 18 years later.
The beginning of November 2012 found my Mother-In-Law, Mary,
at the hospital preparing to have what we thought was a routine
partial-hysterectomy (if you can EVER call such a procedure routine!). What happened afterwards was something NONE
of our family was prepared for. It
turned out that the doctor had to perform a full-hysterectomy as well as remove
many cysts from different organs in her abdomen. She came home from the hospital a day early
though, thinking everything was okay.
A couple of days later, Mary was rushed back to the hospital
as she was so weak her legs would barely hold her and she was completely loopy
and out of her mind (it is okay to joke about this as we all do now). It turned out that her ammonia level was
INSANELY high (190, when it should be about 20!) because her body was not
processing the anesthesia from her surgery.
The day before Thanksgiving, after many tests, the doctors found that
not only did Mary have cirrhosis of the liver, but also a tumor in the middle
of said liver.
To make a long story at least a little shorter, Mary had a
localized kind of chemotherapy which was successful in shrinking the size of
the tumor. Unfortunately, she still had
to worry about the cirrhosis. After much
discussion with doctors, hospital administrators and insurance people, it was
decided that Mary would be put on the Organ Donor list.
None of us in the Crowell family had any experience with
Organ Donation. We all did our own
research, found out none of us could do a living donation for her, and then
there was nothing to do, but sit back, wait and pray. We were all very prepared every day to get
the call. Every beep of a phone was a
potential trip to Indianapolis to save her life.
After 3 months on the Donor List, Mary went back in for more
tests. We found out then that she was
not sick enough to get a liver and hadn’t really been on the list the whole
time. The doctors did more tests. Mary was told that organ donation in Indiana
is combined with donations from Ohio and Michigan. When a person is in need of a donated organ,
the other 2 states have the responsibility of deciding if the person is sick
enough and if s/he will get the organ when one is available. After about 2 weeks of waiting, the results
came back. Mary was just not sick enough
and the likelihood of her getting a liver was extremely small. None of us knew what to think or even what to
pray for. Did we even want to consider
praying that she would get SICKER? What
kind of prayer is that? We just decided
to pray that God knew better than we did and that this was all HIS plan. This was the Friday before Labor Day.
We all relaxed and let our guard down. I stopped leaving my phone on at night. We told our baby-sitters (my parents) that
they didn’t have to be on call right now.
We just figured that was it. We
were SO wrong!!
Four days later, at 3:00am on Tuesday morning after Labor
Day, Mary got a phone call from Indianapolis.
The nurse on the line told her she had until 5:30am to get to the
hospital in Indy. She was holding Mary’s
new liver in her hand. After a frantic
call to my Sister-In-Law to go with them and a call to us to let us know what
is going on (talk about a heart attack when the phone rings at 3:30 in the
morning!!), they very speedily drove to Indy and pulled into the parking garage
at 5:15am!
The docs took her back to test if the liver would be a fit
for her. There was a gentleman on the
list ahead of her that was a match for the liver as well and they had to
determine which a better match was. It
turned out that the gentleman was too large for this particular liver (we found
out later that he received his own liver the very next day!!). So, God’s plan was showing itself to be very
real. Mary was taken back for
surgery. We were told that it would be a
4-8 hour surgery. Two hours after being
taken back, Mary was headed to recovery.
Eric and I did not even have time to make it to the hospital before she
was out of surgery. We could not believe
it when we got there and Eric’s Dad said she was in recovery. The doctor said the surgery went incredibly
smooth and it was almost as if the new liver was made just for her. Praise God!
Almost everything from that moment on went smooth. We found out that the tumor in the liver had
started growing again. She would be
getting sicker. But, thankfully, that
was NOT God’s plan! Obviously, there
have been a few hiccups along the way, but Mary has done amazing! Every doctor has been astounded at her
progress. She has an entirely new lease
on life, has more energy that she has had in as long as she can remember, and
she looks fantastic! She is enjoying the
chance to really spend time with her grandchildren, her children, and her
wonderful husband. It has been
incredibly amazing to watch God’s Hand in everything that has happened the past
year.
So, where is this story going? Well, wait no further. We know that this was God’s Plan. But, do you know what the biggest part of His
Plan in the saving of Mary’s life was?
It was someone making the decision to be an ORGAN DONOR. It was someone that simply said “YES!” to the
simple question, “Do you want to be an organ donor?” when they applied for
their Driver’s License. It was someone
realizing that they couldn’t take it with them.
I have been an organ donor since the day I received my
Driver’s License at 16, but did I really know what that meant? No, I didn’t.
I now know that if something were to happen to me, then someone else’s
life could be saved. I could give
someone else’s family the joy and blessings that our family has received this
year. What a better way to honor God’s
plan than to be a part of His plan for someone else?!?!
I encourage EVERYONE to be an Organ Donor! If you have the little RED heart on your
driver’s license, that is GREAT! I do
make the suggestion that you make sure your loved ones know your desires. Another way is to register online at a site
such as Donate Life (www.donatelifeindiana.org). Another extremely important thing to consider
in Organ Donation is would you have your children be donors if something
happened to them? I know that this is
something NO ONE wants to even think about, but you should. Children’s organs are very difficult to come
by, but are greatly needed. There is a
sweet young boy named Caleb that was just in the news in Indiana that received
a brand new heart. This young child will
now be able to live out his life and it is all thanks to a family that was
willing to make a sacrifice. It is not a
pleasant conversation to have with your spouse or loved ones, but I promise it
would be better to have it when it is not necessary than it would be in the
middle of having to make a decision.
One more thing I would like you to consider is giving
blood. Many people do donate blood and
sell their plasma and that is FANTASTIC!
However, do you know that you can donate specific parts of your blood depending
on your blood type? I have O-Negative
blood. That means that ANYONE can have
my blood! Anyone!! I also have extremely rare O-Negative blood
in that I have an extra anti-gen or something (the blood donor people were less
than explanative about it!) and my blood is very much in demand. So, now, I no longer donate WHOLE blood, but
instead, they take 2 pints of Red Blood Cells.
It takes a little bit more time, but it is exactly what they need from
my blood, so I am happy to donate it!
My point of this article is to make you think and to
hopefully open up a dialogue about Organ Donation. If you are not an organ donor, I am NOT
trying to shame you. I just want you to
see how important Organ Donation is and to maybe make you ask yourself if this
is something you should do. Please feel
free to ask questions, do your research, and most importantly Do Not Be
Afraid.
Remember that when you die, you are gone. You will not need your organs after
death. According to the Bible,
“And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit
returns to God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:7
And
“All go to one place.
All are from the dust, and to dust all return.” Ecclesiastes 3:20.
Finally, just remember that becoming an organ donor is a
decision that will save another person’s life.
That person could be a stranger, the mom of 5 down the street, or your
co-worker’s child who is struggling with every breath. The most important thing to remember is to
hold true to God’s greatest commandments.
“Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all you soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All
the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40
FACTS ABOUT ORGAN DONATION
- · The Indiana Organ Procurement Organization has helped with nearly 3000 organ and tissue transplants in Indiana since it started as a nonprofit health service in 1988.
- · More than 3 million Hoosiers are registered organ donors.
- · Anyone can register to be a donor, regardless of age, race, or medical history.
- · Organ donation is not managed by hospital staff and happens after all life-saving options are attempted. It does NOT change a patient’s care.
- · Donation doesn’t change the body’s appearance and is done surgically, similar to gallbladder or appendix surgery.
- · Donor families do not pay for the donation process.
- · Donor and recipient are confidential. Communication is possible only with consent from both and is facilitated through the IOPO.
- · Every 10 minutes, someone in the U.S. is added to a transplant waiting list; an average of 18 people die each day waiting for a transplant.
§ Sources: Indiana Organ Procurement Organization and Donate Life Indiana
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