I wanted to share this with you, but not until it became official. But last week I was contacted a journalism major from Patrick Henry College in Virginia. She was doing a story on Organ Donation. She found my Xanga site and contacted me through that. We had about a 40 min interview last Friday over the phone, about my transplant experience. She contacted me today to let me know that a National online news organization called WorldNetDaily picked this story up and has posted it on their web site.

Below is the link to the page, my interview does not appear until the end of the article, where you will see a picture of me. Any way I am pretty excited about this, and wanted to share this with you.

Steve

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60670

I love this time of the year. This is when all the “experts” come out of the woodwork and start talking about college basketball and predicting who will win the NCAA Championship, and who will be the Cinderella teams, when they are as clueless as the rest of us. So here is my story….. My wife gets home from her trip to NYC on Sunday morning and as we are sitting around the lunch table she and my daughter are talking to my son and I about there trip and what they saw. And asked them if they saw Madison Square Garden, and then the subject of “selection Sunday” came up and my wife asked me if Pastor Andy was going to do his yahoo “pick em” league this year I told her I guess so, she said well if he does I want in. She gave me her ID name and she would give her brackets in a day or two. She has done this before but has been beaten like a government mule. But she seemed a little more determined this year. Well last night I came down stairs and was getting ready to make supper. I noticed my wife and daughter was sitting on the couch a talking, I also noticed that ESPN was on TV and Digger and the boys were on talking about the tournament. Now normally in our household when flipping through the channels for some reason ESPN is the channel that zooms by the quickest. (That’s when my wife has control of the remote) J. So I thought ok well she is starting to take an interest in sports with me and that was cool. Now keep in mind I am fixing supper so I am preoccupied with what I am doing. Then all of a sudden I start getting peppered with questions like “what is the mascot of Temple”, “what are the school colors of Georgetown”, and “what is a Tar heel” I thought it was a test of my knowledge of college basketball, and was doing pretty good and was feeling…. well a little special cause I thought in my man’s head my wife is finally taking a interest in sports with me. Was I wrong! My wife and daughter are on the couch making their picks for the tournament, based on what I am answering and what she is hearing on ESPN and in some way assimilating  all this information and filling our her brackets. So I guess I was impressed in a new way of what March “Madness” really is. As much as I love her she is going to be burnt like toast!

Ok Kelvin Sampson.

As much as I have enjoyed watching IU this year and see their success for a change, I can’t help be disappointed for guys like DJ White and Eric Gordon. If Sampson is found to have violated these rules then I think Sampson should be fired as well as the athletic director Greenspan. He knew in hiring Sampson he was hiring a coach with a lot of baggage. It was a bad hire from the start. I do not think however that IU should be banned from post season play. Why penalize the players who have worked hard for the actions of their coach? If the players violated NCAA rules then yes they should be banned from post-season play. But again as I said why make them suffer because of their coach. Not that I am a big Bobby Knight fan or that I would like to see him come back to IU which would be very doubtful. I still think the man is a genius as a basketball coach is concerned. He is a purest as to how the game should be played. And say what you want about Knight in 29 years he has not broken any NCAA rules….yes a chair or two but that about itJ. He is had one of the highest graduation rates among his players and has done great things in the community as well. But his behavior on and off the court has diminished those facts. Well that’s my ramble for the day. I hope the header now makes sense.

 1.     We never know how any given day will end. I have a trust in the Lord that all of our steps are ordered by Him and that whatever circumstance great or small is being done for His glory. Also that in life we need to live each day as it where perhaps our last, and give ourselves totally to living for the Lord who has given us so much.  

2.     As already mentioned just how the Lord ordered all on Friday. Being with Pastor Andy, having the man in our church take care of the food, already heading to Indianapolis, being a holiday week, my wife had an extra day off.

 3.     I was told by one person that I was “the luck of the draw” Well we know that this was not luck this was solely the mighty providential working of our God to the good of His people. I do stand stunned and amazed at this last week’s events. Stunned from the point I never thought in my wildest dreams I would have a transplant this soon. But then it has shown me that God’s timing is not ours. And amazed from the point of how quickly I have been recovering. As another side note this transplant was to take between 6-8 hours but the one performed on me was done in 3 ½ hours. I am ashamed to be amazed because we do serve a great and mighty God that has done more abundantly that I ever thought or deserved. But I do Praise his name, I do glorify his name. I have told people that when you see me face to face that I want us together to magnify, glorify and worship this God in the way He has answered specific prayers and the way he ordered all these providences great and small the day of the transplant, and how as many of you prayed for me, God heard your prayers and I stand before you as answered prayer! Did I choose this for myself of course not, but it is God in His wise plan to bring this into my life, and to make me an example and I desire now to be more of a help and encouragement to those who suffer and are under severe trials. I also desire to be more of a servant and lover of our Lord. I know you have indulged me these last few days in talking about this experience, and I appreciate that. I just felt it was a good thing to share my story for the many of you that have prayed for me, and it has been good for me to express my feelings as well. But please rejoice with me in this wonderful God that watches over us and gives us what brings the most glory to Him! Tomorrow will be my last post on this, but I have had a great number of inquiries on how that we might best be prayed for.  

 May 26th, 2007

I don’t remember much after that I was told that Pastor Bob and David O’Neal came to see me but I have no recollection of their visits. At about 8:30 Saturday night the breathing tube was removed and was put on oxygen.  I begin to wake up and finally the nurses set me up in bed. I do remember going in and out of sleep. On Sunday they started to remove more of the drainage tubes, and doctors were very pleased with my progress. I do remember Pastor Harold and Sibyl coming to see me and had a good visit with them. On Monday I was able to get in and out of bed several times and all the rest of the chest tubes were removed. On Tuesday I took a 200 ft walk and was so out of breath by the time I got back to my room I thought I was going to pass out. But I was told this was normal. All the nurses and doctors that came to see me said I was about 2-3 days ahead of recovery where most people are at this time. The following day I was moved to a step down ward, where I have a much larger room where I could move around in. I increased my walking each day and feeling much better than I had been. I was there until Saturday when I was released.Now some other tidbits. I no longer have to take meds for congestive heart failure, but I do have a battery of meds I now take because my immune system is so low and the fear of my body rejecting the new heart. These meds I will take the rest of my life. For the next month I will have a weekly biopsy done to see if there is rejection. My first on was last Thursday and came back at 0% rejection…Praise the Lord! Because of these meds it has got my blood sugar all out of whack, and I have to give myself insulin shots 4 times a day. But the blood sugar should come back in line as some of these meds are adjusted. Anytime I go out in public I have to wear like a surgical mask and refrain from touching and hugging people, this will last for 6 months. As a family we are going through a process in the way we cook our food and prepare meals. Washing of say vegetables and fruits must be washed 3 and 4 times. And we find ourselves washing our hands several times a day. If you would come for a visit Susan would greet you at the door with a little squirt of antibacterial gel. J. The time that generally a person stays in the hospital is 10-14 days, but I was released little over 7 days. The doctors seemed impressed with my quick recovery, with one telling me that he saw no reason to keep me any longer. Some have asked about the donor like I said in an earlier post they are tight lipped about sharing any detail with the recipient. However he did learn the night of the transplant that the donor was out of state, he was a young man in the age or 24-30. However since that time we learned though a conversation which was started by Pastor Joe. He was concerned and voiced this concern that would this new heart make a difference in my golf game, where I would be able to beat him, the nurse replied that all she could tell him that I would be golfing with a 26 year younger heart than I had before, which would have but this donor man at 24.. I have an option to write this family a letter of gratitude, which I will do. I have to be very discreet in this letter as not to let them know my address or full name and any personal info like that. I can give them my first name but that’s it. And then this letter has to go through several channels before it gets to the donor family. My thoughts were to write them in a few months, just in order that they have time to grieve. I also have been told that this man donated all of his viable organs to others as well. Well that’s about all I can think of right now. I will probably finish these post about this experience, tomorrow as I would just like to make some closing observations about this whole perspective. I wish I had the words to fully express to each person, whether here in Anderson, or Owensboro, and even in Dayton, for your prayers for us; they have meant the world to us. I am grateful to our Lord that He has put this kinship within us to bear one another’s burden and pray for our needs. What  a privilege we have to lift everything to God in prayer. I thank you for indulging me in speaking of this event in my life. 

May 25^th, 2007

When I get to the hospital I am taken to a room that has been isolated for the 4 hours before my arrival. I then am asked to change into a hospital gown, and get in bed. A doctor Young comes to talk to me and let me know that he will be hooking me up to IV’s and starting a reverse affect of a particular medicine I have been taking. As all this was going on Susan was on her way to the high school where my youngest daughter was attending, to get her. By the way the day of all this was Katelyn’s 16^th birthday. At about 2:30pm they arrived as well as my son and father-in-law. We where told at that time that the transplant may take place between 5-6 that evening. As the day progressed the word of this must have spread because people from church kept filtering in. Well around 5:30 we were told that it might be closer to 9-930 before surgery. In the meantime a nurse found out that it was Katelyn’s birthday and arranged a big chocolate cake to be delivered to my room. So we sang happy birthday to her and everyone ate cake while I just watched…lol. Dr Young kept coming in and just letting me know what they were doing and preparing the family for what I would look like after the surgery. Lora, my transplant coordinator was also in a lot letting us know the status of the situation. Although nothing can be said of the donor or what has happened to him. At about 1015 that night we are told that the plane has taken off and that the donor heart is a really, really, really, good heart. What we were told at that time was that it was from a young man, who was a rather large body size but had been very athletic all his life. So at about 11 I was wheeled to surgery where I said goodbye to my family and started some babble about my last wishes and all that to which Lora told me that I was going to be just fine. So I shut up. I was taken to this holding area where my chest and arms were shaved, and the next thing I remember was being pushed into the surgery room looking up at the surgical lights. That was the last thing I remembered. These next events I will write about is concerning the updates the family received during the course of the night. These were recorded by a dear lady in our church.1:35 am Lora told the family I was on bypass and the heart was here.2:30 am the heart is in and beating and the doctors where putting in drain tubes, and getting ready to take off bypass.3:30 am off bypass and checking for bleeding.4:00 doctors were wiring up sternum. and was being placed on a ventilator 4:40 am Lora tells family they were finishing up and sewing everything back in place.4:50 am the transplant surgeon Dr. Salerno tells family I am on the way to recovery and would be weaned off the ventilator later that day and that it was an excellent heart. The surgery was just over 3 1/2 hours.5:15 am family comes in; they said I am puffy and pale, hooked up to a lot of tubes and wires, and of course the ventilator. Lora tells the family that my old heart was the largest of the last 5 transplants, and when they removed it was an angry red color, it literally fit into the 2 hands of the surgeon. But the new one was a very healthy pink color and was the size of his fist. The family is reminded not to get bogged down in details but look at the big picture. They have to make sure brain; lungs, kidneys and heart are all working together.The next thing I do remember was seeing the lovely face of my wife and her telling me that I had a new heart and that it was beating perfectly. And was told that upon that news I flashed a $100.00 smile and gave a thumbs up…then slipped back into sleep.I will stop here for now because I know this has been rather lengthy. But will later this week will finish the rest of the week.

 Transplanted and at Home!

May 25^th, 2007 

I received a cell phone call. at 11:13 am. I cannot identify the voice of the caller only by the caller ID I see it’s a transplant coordinator. She says “Steve?” “Have you taken your meds for today”, “are you alone or with someone?” “Have you eaten today?” I just thought she was calling me because I had voiced mailed her earlier about a test result I had done the day before. When I asked her what was going on she says “well there maybe something in the works today for a heart transplant” My stomach went immediately to my throat and thought this couldn’t be I have only been on the list since April 10.Cell phone call 2 came to me at 12:22pm. “Steve this is Lora, it looks like you need to come to the hospital and get checked in don’t rush but get her as soon as you can….I was stunned. No this couldn’t be, or could it really? Now let me fill in the blanks between phone calls. At about 10:45 that morning I had met with Pastor Andy to go to Sams Club to purchase some meat we were going to use for a cookout on Sunday. We stopped by a local elementary school so Andy could take a video of a presentation of a gift to a teacher. It was after that when on our way to Sam’s that I received the first call. We get to Sams and begin to shop while there we run into a man from our church that was there with his father-in-law. We get all that we needed for the cookout and try some sample’s they were having. We checkout and begin to load the car when the second phone call came. In the providence of our God the man I mentioned from our church had just also checked out. Andy asked him if he could take the meat and store it till Sunday. After being told to come to the hospital I started to get a hold of Susan my wife, my Son, Pastor Joe from Owensboro just to let them know what was going on. Pastor Andy had called his dad and was able to speak to Pastor Tom for a few minutes. On the way to the hospital I broke down several times, wondering what the rest of the day would hold. Would this be a real thing? or a false alarm. I had only began to prepare myself that if the transplant were to happen it may be in September, or Oct, because where I was placed on the list was serious but I knew there were others in worst shape ahead of me. But I also knew that I had a universal blood type that put me at maybe a better advantage. Andy was such a comfort, reminding me that I was a child of God, That God was watching over me, in every detail and to lean myself upon Him. He also was quoting scripture to me as we walked into the hospital. I get to the hospital check in and am wheeled into my room. I will stop here because the next few post will be a continuous unfolding of the days events.But there are some striking providences I would make mention of.

#1 God is his wise creativity of me, created in me this universal blood type.

#2 I was not alone but with Pastor Andy.

#3 The man we met from our church being there at Sam’s

#4 As Andy and I were discussing whether to go back to Anderson or hang around in Indy at that precise moment the second call came.I am overwhelmed beyond words at times to fully be able to express in words all the feelings and emotions that happened that day as well as the days to follow. I can barely sit and think of the goodness of God, and the loss of this family member whose heart is now beating in me without breaking down in tears of praise to God, and for the spirit of gratitude He has placed within me