Undiscovered Pathways

“This is the tenth blog in the Caregiver Series discussing Lung Transplant Surgery.”

Surgery Day

I woke up at home early in the morning and took a breath and realized that today was surgery day. A day that we had been waiting for since the diagnosis 2 1/2 years ago. I headed to the hospital where my husband had spent the night. On my drive to the hospital, I glanced over on the floor of the passenger side of the car and noticed an oxygen tank which had been a staple in my husband’s life. Today would set him on a different path without oxygen!

Pre Operative Procedures

The morning was a relaxing day as the surgery was scheduled for 2:30 pm. They gave him oxygen last night which would hopefully be a distant memory. He previously had diabetes with no insulin. His blood sugar soared and the first of many doses of insulin to bring it in to check.

He was moved down to Pre-Operatives Procedures to get him ready for surgery. The open item was would there be a dry run. A dry run is when the transplant patient is prepped and ready to go for the operation and the organs arrive and they are not viable for the patient. How heartbreaking that would be! The donor lungs were being flown in from the east or west coast and that is all the information we had at the time.

One of the lessons that you learn in the hospital is that time operates differently. You hurry up and wait! When you are told a time, it would most certainly happen later. Then, all of a sudden, they tell you it is time and he is wheeled into the waiting room. They told us to go to the surgery waiting room and we would be updated every hour by a phone call and a transmitter. It was 3 pm and I expected to be contacted soon to let me know that it was going to be a dry run.

Surgery Waiting Area

The surgery waiting room is an open area of the equivalent of 4 rooms. Even the middle of the afternoon the waiting room is packed with people waiting for their loved ones to come out of surgery. Upon arrival, you are given a transmitter which will update you on the status of the surgeries. The area has several large monitors where you can check the status.

Most people have brought books, newspapers, IPads, and phones to occupy their waiting time. Some of the sweetest and caring people you will meet in the waiting room. We met a gentlemen that was waiting on his wife from surgery and his daughter to come pick him up. When he found out what my husband was having done, such caring came from a complete stranger and we actually saw him later and he was still asking how everybody is doing. The waiting rooms provide that sense of community that only people going through a loved one having surgery. It is an experience that you will always cherish.

The updates starting coming in with the first one at 5 pm that the operation had started. First thought was what were they doing for the 2 hours that he went into the operating room? Come to find out that the first hour was getting him prepped and the second hour was getting to the point to take his old lungs out. The new lungs had arrived and testing was completed to see that they were viable. At 5 PM, the operation started and completed by three surgeons. One surgeon for each lung and the third surgeon to operate the Ecmo machine which keeps you alive while the transplant was in process.

…6:34 PM-The right lung is going in…

…8:51 PM-The left lung is going in…

…10:10 PM-The surgery was finished sort of. Two of the surgeons came to the Surgery Waiting Room to talk to me. When they called me to find out where I was, it did raise my anxiety level I will have to say. They told me that both lungs are in and working! They do not close the chest entirely (just the outer layers) due to swelling.

When you have Pulmonary Fibrosis, the scarring at the bottom of the lungs is no longer being used and the body automatically moves the chest cavity in. Since you have a smaller chest cavity, there is swelling when the transfer is made. They both looked at me like that is common knowledge! Who knew?

The surgeons would have to wait 1-2 days to let the swelling go down before trying to attempt to close the chest completely. From this point on, bronchoscopes are completed to obtain biopsies and fluid specimens to assess whether there is any infection and rejection. As we journey through the recovery, great attention is paid to whether there is any infection and rejection.

…11:00 PM-From the surgery suite, he was transferred to the CardioThoracic ICU on a ventilator and sedated. He had survived the surgery and I am so grateful for the surgeons’ skills in getting him through the surgery. Next step, the Intensive Care Unit.

CardioThoracic Intensive Care Unit

…11:45 PM-I made my way to the CT ICU and after a long day, I was anxious to see him and talk to him and hold his hand. Yes, maybe he can’t hear me, but maybe he can! I consider myself not a queasy person when you see patients in the hospital. However, when I got to the front of ICU Room #10, seeing him with more machines and wires that I have ever seen, it literally took my breath away!

He had received an amazing gift from the donor and we will always be eternally grateful for the gift. The road to recovery begins!