What does that mean?

January 26th, 2011 at about 3 pm and I'm just getting ready to lay down to take a nap, when my phone decides to ring.  Knowing it was OHSU, I was just expecting the call to be for setting up an appointment that I'd been trying to schedule.  I was actually taken back when it was Charlene, my pre-transplant coordinator.  And here was how the conversation went...

Me:  Hello?
Charlene: Hello, is this Jamie?
Me:  Yeah...
Charlene:  Hi Jamie.  It's Charlene from OHSU.  I'm calling to let you know we've got a donor for you.
Me:  What does that mean?
Charlene:  That means we've got a liver for you.
(At this point the shock starts to set in)
Me:  Oh, I suppose that means I should get myself to the hospital...

I made my phone calls to my family members and got my stuff ready.  At this point, I was slowly feeling the jitters of getting scared.  I hadn't myself, gotten the call before, and there was just something that felt different about this time.

Getting up to the hospital, I knew the pre-procedure for the surgery.  The nurses got me all ready and then I had all night to sit and wonder if this time was actually it.  As the time went by, I became more and more nervous, because that meant it was more a possibility that I would really be getting my transplant finally.  I got to the hospital around 4 pm on the 26th, and my surgery was scheduled for 6 am on the 27th.

That morning, the nurses were in and out of my room.  Finally around 7 am they took me down for my surgery.  I was extremely scared.  I didn't know what I was getting myself into.  My "Pit Crew" (my team of nurses), didn't leave my side.  One of the nurses held my hand from when I was in my room, up until the anesthetic knocked me out.  I was very fortunate to feel cared about by so many people that I'd just met.  These were the amazing people that kept me at ease as I was experiencing the last moments of my life as I knew it pre-transplant.  Life was never going to be the same for me.