Whether you were air lifted or arrived by ambulance to one of the hospital’s ICUs or came to a clinic appointment, preparation for transplantation is vital. Research demonstrates that the better-prepared one is for a major health procedure, the better the outcome. So regardless of how you came to the program, it is our aim to prepare you and your family as much as possible. That is the purpose of this book.
Evaluation time varies from patient to patient. So does the waiting process. It depends on several factors that include blood type, body size (height & weight) and severity of illness. The following metaphor is offered as a way of illustrating the process of waiting in organ transplantation. Your waiting time may be well-spent in living your life as best you can, given your health, preparing yourself for the surgery to come; doing whatever it is that gives you joy …or you can wait for the ‘station’.
Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are traveling by train. Out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, children waving at a crossing, cattle grazing on a distant hillside, smoke pouring from a power plant, row upon row of corn and wheat, flatlands and valleys, mountains and rolling hillsides, city skylines and village halls.
But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing, flags waving. Once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering – waiting for the station.
“When we reach the station, that will be it!” we cry. “When I’m 18.” “When I buy a new 450SL Mercedes Benz!” “ When I put the last kid through college.” “When I have paid off the mortgage!” “When I get a promotion.” “When I retire, I shall live happily ever after.”
Sooner or later we must realize that there is no station, no one place to arrive once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.
“Relish the moment” is a good motto. It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves that rob us of today.
So, stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.
- Robert J. Hastings