Excerpt

Excerpt from "Butterflies on My Mind."

On Tuesday, December 6, 1988, at about 9:30 a.m., I received call number six from Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I was sitting at my sewing machine working on a throw pillow. It was the day before my birthday. Sgt. Corkle said, “We have a kidney for you.” He proceeded to ask how I was doing, and asked if I had any new problems. My response was, “No.” I didn’t get excited; after all, five other calls had preceded that one, which I dubbed, “dress rehearsals.” He then made me aware that the tissue typing revealed that the cadaver was a perfect match for me! A 6-antigen match! My heart started to race. I said to myself, this is it! Before Sgt. Corkle hung up, he said, “We are making arrangements to fly you up here.” THANK GOD, MY DAY HAD COME! It is difficult to describe the intensity of my emotions at that moment. I imagined the feeling was akin to learning that I had suddenly become a millionaire. I stood up, grasped my head, while thinking, “Now, what do I do first?”

I received a call from Dr. Shaver, transplant surgeon, shortly after my conversation with Sgt. Corkle. He confirmed the miraculous news Sgt. Corkle had given, and he said, “We are arranging to get you up here...you’ll probably get a call soon about the arrangements.” I didn’t recall anything I said to Dr. Shaver, except I managed to say, “This is unbelievable news...I’m looking forward to meeting you.” He responded in kind. I wondered for a split second if another patient was competing for that kidney, but that did not lessen my exhilaration. I tried to calm myself and organize my thoughts because a few important things needed to be done.

Sgt. Corkle apparently called the Dialysis Center, and Dr. Howard (our family doctor) as well, presumably to check on my health status. The Dialysis Center tried to contact me, without success, but they were able to reach Stonie (my husband) at work, and relayed to him that there was a kidney for me. Stonie called me before I was able to reach him. He assumed I did not know about the kidney. He quickly asked if I had called Mitzi’s (our daughter) school. He said he was on his way and that he would pick up Mitzi. No sooner than I had put the receiver down, Dr. Howard called, he said, “Walter Reed just called. They have a kidney for you, and I wanted to wish you good luck.” I thanked him, and I told him how much I appreciated the care and help he had given me, especially, speeding up the evaluation of my ascites problem.

Another call came from Sgt. Corkle. He said Scott Air Force Base (Illinois), the home base for the Armed Services Air Evac System, was arranging my flight. He said I needed to be at Pope Air Force Base at 11:30 a.m. Pope is about a twenty-five minute drive from our home. He also made me aware of the arrangements they were making to have the donor kidney flown to Dulles International Airport (Washington, D.C.). Dulles is about thirty-five minutes from Walter Reed. Sgt. Corkle inquired about my last dialysis treatment, and my hematocrit level. I told him I was scheduled to be dialyzed today (Tuesday, December 6th), and my hematocrit was 19% at the last testing. Dialysis patients tend to recall their hematocrit as quickly as their weight. He said, “We will dialyze you when you get up here.” Before he hung up, he said one family member or person could accompany me on the flight.

We arrived at Pope AFB, which is adjacent to Fort Bragg, shortly after 11:15 a.m. Stonie, Mitzi and I, along with six to eight other passengers, were standing on the air field when the Air Evac plane came to a stop. Air Evac aircrafts are distinguished by a large red cross on the rear of the plane. A flight nurse came down the steps of the plane, walked over and asked Mitzi if she were the patient who was to be transplanted. Mitzi turned toward me, touched my arm and said, “No, it’s my mother who’s going to be transplanted.” The nurse asked if I needed any assistance. She thought I needed assistance with a hematocrit of 19%. I assured her that I could walk without assistance. We departed Pope at about 12:15 p.m. for Andrews Air Force Base (Maryland) and we arrived at Andrews AFB at about 12:45 p.m. Upon arrival at Walter Reed, I was taken to Nephrology Service, on the fourth floor, where I sat only a few minutes before I was wheeled into the room that I would share with another transplant candidate. She was enroute to Walter Reed from California. There would be two kidney transplants occurring at about the same time.

I walked down to the dialysis suite, hopefully, for my last dialysis treatment. I quietly applauded my graft for holding up, over the three years, against the blows of all of the needle punctures. I was given a unit of blood during the treatment. I pulled the blanket up to my chin, a normal occurrence after my body felt chilly from drop in blood pressure. I normally took a nap during a treatment, but I was too excited to relax. So many wonderful thoughts kept bouncing around in my head...no more needles, no more anemia, no more sore needle punctures, no more food restrictions, NO MORE DIALYSIS! I’m going to be healthy again! A big dose of reality kicked in. I was getting ahead of myself. What if something goes awry during surgery? What if there is a problem with the ascites during surgery? Those thoughts did not linger very long; they were replaced by more pleasant images.

I was awakened about 3 a.m. and was told I would be picked up at 6:30 a.m. to be taken to surgery. As I was rolled into the holding area of the operating pavilion, I saw other patients neatly lined up in the holding area, waiting to go into surgery. I was the first patient rolled out of the holding area. Capt. Lupkas prepared my jugular vein for an IV as he explained that dialysis patients brought special concerns to surgery because of fluid levels. Meanwhile, LTC Henricson, nurse anesthetist, put another line in my wrist. I looked to my left and saw a box labeled “kidney” in big red letters, and in smaller letters “left” (kidney). I was being prepared to get the donor’s left kidney. My last memory was someone saying, “This mask will help you to breathe, just relax and take a deep breath.” Surgery started at 6:55 a.m. and was completed at 12:30pm, on December 7th, my birthday!