Second Moment

On September 5th 2008 I received a call from my Dr. Dana Weisshaar letting me know Stanford accepted me as a heart transplant candidate category 2 at home.

This was exciting and what I had been praying for the last five months. On the other side, Dr. Dana said it would be months possibly a year before I would received a new heart waiting at home. I was very concerned but decided to continue my normal daily activities including walking and exercising.

The following week was very stressful for me. I had a lot going on at work and home. I notice a big change happening quickly. My body was breaking down. I wasn't able to sleep for months at night, so fatigued couldn't walk across the street to get my mail without being short of breath and in pain. I had developed a very nagging cough which later I found was due to congested heart failure.

On September 19th I was busy at work and received a call from my Dr. Dana Weisshaar. I was kind of surprise to hear from her. She was asking very directly my symptoms and how I was feeling, I told her I was failing and that my symptoms were increasing quickly.

I call Dr. Dana my "little bulldog" she is the kind of doctor who will not give up on her patients. The heart transplant team she has formed call the "Family" and it is true. We are one big special "Family" Dr. Dana was quite upset with me why I did not go to her on the support group meeting day, Sept 9th to tell her I wanted to be admitted to the hospital as a category 1B. The heart transplant list is broken down by category 1A is those who will live for one week, 1B is those who have 30 days and 2 is up to one year.

She kept asking "Debbie why are you denying this? You are sick what are you afraid of?" As I listen to her words I realized she was right, I was sick.

So that moment in time I told Dr. Dana I was ready to be put in the hospital as a category 1B on dopomine (a heart medicine which helps the heart function better). She asked me, why not come today. Immediately I told her "Oh No" I have so much to do to get ready". She said OK you are coming into clinic on Monday Sept 22nd and do not plan to go home after. I said yes.

On Monday September 22nd I went into the hospital at Santa Clara Heart Transplant Center. At approximately 4:30pm the first drops of dopomine was intravenously injected into my body. A Stanford Cardiologist was standing by with the phone to inform Stanford that dopomine was going and to elevate my status from category 2 to category 1B.

And that is when "The Moment in Time" began

For the next four days, I rested in the hospital in a beautiful room ( if you can believe it). I had a small sitting area overlooking a garden where I read each day. My main door into my room looked out to the outside where I could see the sun shining, trees and flowers. It was relaxing and I resorted to the fact I would be there for at least 30-60 days.