Two things are simultaneously true – we are over the moon that Graham received a heart transplant and our hearts are breaking for the donor’s family. We will honor the life of this donor and the bravery of their family. We are forever grateful for Graham’s second chance at life. 

We received the call as we were cutting the pie at our thanksgiving dinner in the PICU conference room. The tears continued to flow for several hours. It was shift change at the time of the call. Hug – tears – hug – tears. I laugh a little because I’ve become a hugger in the past year. A couple of days later, Graham had a successful transplant. He was extubated quickly and is now “tube free”! The only line he has left is his PICC line. Our trusty PICC we’ve had for 173 days – one that we are holding our breath will last until discharge. You all are probably exhausted from hearing it, but I cannot write a post without acknowledging it, we could not have asked for a better medical team.  

The last phase of our hospital stay will be monitoring his vital signs, blood levels, and nutrition. He’s eating and drinking well, and so far, his vitals are very stable. Finding the sweet spot for medications sounds like it will be a continuous journey for the next year. He will go to the cath lab in a week or so to get a biopsy of the heart. This will test for rejection. We’ve been braced that rejection is a scary word, but it is manageable. It can be localized and controlled with medication. 

Thank you all for everything – for reading our story. For praying, mourning, and giving thanks to the donor’s family. For praying, sending good vibes for Graham. For celebrating when you got the news. For dinners, chats, books, toys, and coffee. For texts of love and well wishes we haven’t replied to. 

He’s doing great – I hope our next post is about our hospital discharge celebration. Praise be to God.