Thursday afternoon April 11 - the call...

We received a call this afternoon about 3:30PM that there might be a kidney and a pancreas for Gary for a transplant tonight.  The first call was to make sure he was feeling ok and also to make sure we would be available for a transplant.  The nurse also told us a bit of what to expect.  Gary was napping at the time so the nurse said to let him sleep since he would be needing his sleep if the transplant goes as hoped.  The next call was about an hour later letting us know that the donor surgery to harvest the organs was scheduled for 8PM and sounds like it will take about 2 hours.

Our next call will probably come somewhere around 10PM after they've decided whether the organs are good enough for transplant, and then will probably tell us when to come to the hospital and where to go.  They will be flown to UIC where Gary will have the transplant.  Right now it looks like surgery may happen during the night -- approx 2AM or so but nothing definite yet on time.  Even if the donor hospital feels the organs are good, there's a chance UIC doctors will look at them and say they aren't good.  

So, it's a night of "hurry up" and "wait".  It's also a night of prayer -- Pray for the donor family since we know that someone has had to die for this to be possible.  Also pray for all of us as we try to prepare and be patient and for Bradley and Laura (not 100% sure yet if they are both coming tonight or just Bradley) as they travel here.  Especially pray that if the transplant does happen, that the surgery will go smoothly and that Gary's body will accept the new organs and that his body won't reject them.  Also for all the doctors and nurses and any other staff involved in this whole process.