Day 40

 

Hope

 

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

 

Romans 15:4

 

 

The first big episode in Cathy's declining health happened when we were on vacation. We had gone with another couple to Washington state and into British Columbia. Cathy had become real short of breath on some uphill hikes, so much so that I had to give her a piggy-back ride a few times. After our trip to Washington she had gone to visit her folks in Missouri and when she got back to Houston she was in full blown congestive heart failure.

 

I had to carry her upstairs to our bedroom that day. She spent about a week in the hospital on that occasion and it happened again and again with the interval of hospital stays becoming more frequent. On one occasion she had to spend about a month in the CCU with a blood clot near her heart. I was told more than once that I should prepare for the worse but I always believed she would recover. She was just in her twenties, I had to believe their was hope.

 

The situation finally became so desperate that we were advised that she needed to sign up for a heart transplant. She met all he requirements for a transplant and she was placed on the list. I remember a bleak Thanksgiving when we shared with my family the need for the heart transplant. Though she was not doing well at all we flew up to Missouri to be with her family for Christmas. Normally when you are on the transplant list you are supposed to stay close to home but the doctors gave the okay for  the trip thinking she wouldn't live long enough to receive a heart. When it came time to leave St. Louis it was an emotional time. She was not sure she would live to ever see her parents again. I held her as she cried all during the flight home. It was about as bad as it could get but somehow I still believed she would make it through.

 

After Christmas she was confined to her bed. We converted a floor lamp into an IV pole and since she was an RN and had a central line for IVs she instructed me on how to hang the meds she was on 24 hours a day. It was a death watch. Would she live long enough  for a heart to become available or would she die first? I could only pray and hope.

 

One morning in January the phone rang. A heart was on its way from Colorado. We had about an hour to make some phone calls and get our stuff together and make it to the hospital. By the time surgery started the waiting room was full with my family and hers plus people from churches where I had served. Churches across the country were praying for her. Surgery lasted about 6 hours. I remember being nervous but confident. My hope, faith and prayers were rewarded. The transplant was a success and Cathy had a quick recovery.

 

I was and always will be grateful for the family of the young woman in Colorado. By her being on the organ donor list and with her family's consent my family received the precious gift of life. I do not know their names but I am so thankful.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Romans 15:1-6

 

• What is one of the purposes of Scripture?
• Who gives the endurance to stand our trials?
• As we join others who have endured what are we to do?