Teary day!

Today was another busy in Seattle! Started the morning off having breakfast at Beth’s Cafe . Beth’s Cafe has been featured on the Travel Channel, The Food Network and The Learning Channel. It is home to the six and twelve egg omelets, plus endless hash browns! Kerry and I split a six egg omelet and hash brown. Let me tell you it was a unique experience, great food and you don’t leave hungry!! Beth’s Cafe asks their guests to draw a picture or write down a saying and hang it on the walls. The walls are literally covered in color crayon drawings and sayings. My dad and I made the famous “Fink for Life” Ràt Fink and hung it up on the wall! I’ll post a picture down below! So if anyone ever visits Beth’s, you’ll have to look for our Ràt Fink drawing,, we hung it by the cash register. Beth’s is a little hole in the wall, easy to miss place, but, oh my, the food is awesome!

Next we headed to the monthly pre/post lung transplant support group. The class is held once a month, the second Tuesday of every month. The topic this month was the role LifeCenter Northwest plays, and how to reach out to your donor family. It was extremely emotional!! I don’t think anyone had a dry eye in the group. We got to witness a double lung transplant (her name was Linda, but the recipients family nicknamed her “Linda Lungs”) and the donors family meet face to face for the first time. Words cannot being to describe the emotion and love between each family. The donor was a 23 year old Native American female named Rachel who was killed by a hit and run driver in Tacoma in 2013. She was an athlete, special education teacher, a loving compassionate individual who had a smile that would light up a room. Although I did not have the pleasure of meeting this young lady, you could gather these thoughts by how her family and friends spoke of her. The recipient Linda was a 40ish lady from Eugene, Oregon who had Pulmonary Fibrosis, Pulmonary Hypertension and Emphysema. She waited 85 days for her transplant and only had a lung function of 13%. It was so crazy, as she talked about her pre transplant daily struggles, I could totally relate. Not being able to walk 20 feet without coughing or so out of breathe you had to stop and rest. Using up oxygen tanks like they are going out of style. But she kept the boxing gloves on and fought the whole way. She also talked about how attitude is 99% of the battle. You can’t play the “poor me” card, you have to keep pushing! Again hit so close to home!! Linda and Rachel’s family have been in contact since Christmas Day 2014, but today was the first day they met face to face. Rachel’s family, which was composed of her parents, two bothers, uncle, two aunts, two best childhood friends, and her grandmother. The amount of support they had for one another was beautiful! Rachel’s mother, Laura, said Rachel was able to save 5 lives with her organs (including Linda Lungs), two people now have sight from Rachel’s corneas, she also commented Laura does not know the final tally (recipients are still being located) but UP TO 75 life’s can be saved or changed from her tissues, and she didn’t know how many people had received Rachel’s bones as well. That is amazing!!
Linda is first person Rachel’s family has contact with, written, then face to face. This person was able to save life’s, because she became an organ donor. Everyone should be an organ donor!! Both Laura and Robert (Rachel’s father) expressed even though they would received letter, emails, calls and text messages from Linda they still needed proof, that Linda was a “real” person. Laura said that when she hugged Linda for the first time today and actually felt her breath on her neck that it became real. Robert also expressed having contact with Linda and her husband really helped them through the grieving process. What a horrible thing a parent has to go through, burying their child. I can’t imagine what they would be like. “But knowing your child is living on through other people, is a precious gift” said Robert. Everyone in Rachel’s family had a chance to share their thoughts and feelings about meeting Linda and the entire process. Hearing their thoughts was definitely a moving experience. Myself, my parents and Kerry are so very very grateful to the donor that saved my life. Hopefully, some day we will have the opportunity face to face to try any convey throes feelings.

Valerie who works for LifeCenter Northwest and who has been working with Rachel’s family and Linda to facilitate this meeting, spoke about writing your initial letter to the donor family. She also spoke about the role LifeCenter Northwest takes in this entire organ donating process. I’ll start off with writing the initial letter. Valerie gave some very great tips. The one that stuck with me the most is write from your heart. There is no such thing as a “perfect” or “correct” letter to write. Just let the words come from your heart. Even if your letter contains 2-3 sentences that is better than nothing. It can be as simple as “thank you.” In my book there isn’t enough “thank you’s” in this world to say to your donor family!! Several of you have asked if I will mention our website in my initial letter, I learned today I cannot mention any contact information (phone, email address, facebook, website, etc) until I hear back from our donor family. Then you can give out any contact information you would like. I also learned today that less than 1% of actual organ donors have their organs harvested. A person has to be declared brain dead, and on the ventilator. Being on the ventilator keeps the blood flowing to your organs, in return, keeps them alive. Once that happens and the person is an organ donor, LifeCenter Northwest sends their team out and do extensive testing and screening on the patient to see if the organs are good enough to harvest. If the donors meet the qualifications and before organs can be harvested, LifeCenter Northwest has to know exactly where each organ is going. Once each organ has its specific location, each hospital sends out their procurement team. Once everyone (or team) is assembled it’s a matter of minutes, before the donor is taken into surgery and then they are pronounced. Robert, Laura and Deloris (Rachel’s grandmother) shared walking Rachel’s hospital bed down the hall heading to the surgery room, how all the nurses, doctors, CNA’s all stood up as she was wheeled by, several people said “she is a true hero”, while others were so quiet you could hear a pin drop. When they reached the surgery doors, they told Rachel “see you soon” one more time and then she was gone. Another emotional moment!!

Today was an experience I will NEVER forgot. I learned a lot, information wise, but also emotionally. I hope I have contact with my donor family that blossoms into a beautiful relationship. WOW what emotional day!! I have to be honest this is probably one of the hardest blogs I’ve had to write. I wish I had recorded today’s support group, so each and everyone of of you could experience it. Plus a lot of very helpful and useful information was given out.

After support group Kerry and I dropped my parents off at the apartment, and we headed out to the Queen Anne district again. We found a place to park it was on a hill, twice a steep as the hill at Pikes Market! Well, not really, but it was a steep one! Coming down was the easy part, going back up was a challenge. I’m happy to report I didn’t stop, or cough! I was a little winded when I got to the car, but hey, I did it!! I also found a gluten free bakery. Bought a few yummy goodies! Can’t wait to eat my chocolate cream pie for dessert tonight! After we were done wandering around the Queen Anne district we came back to the apartment parked the car, and walked 5 blocks up to the drug store Bartell’s for a few items. Great day for walking around, weather wise, a little cloudy, but warm. Felt great!

Well it’s been a long busy day, and tomorrow is clinic day. Tomorrow will be an early morning. Time to start the nightly routine! Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!

Until next time…….

~Jen~
“Just Breathe”