30 Days

That's how long Ben was on the liver transplant list. WAS on the list. Because on Saturday, February 28, at 3:00 p.m. his cell phone rang and our entire world changed . . .

We had been warned that often you're called in once or twice before it really is a match. We had prepared for the call to come in the middle of the night, or while Ben was at work, but instead it came while we were all together, on a day where everyone was off work, just a few hours after we'd been goofing off with the camera, taking silly family portraits, on a day where Ben had said that he was feeling great and had lots of energy. It came just days after I had paid all the bills ahead, done extra grocery shopping and cleaned the house. It came on a day where despite having 50 shirts to pick from, Ben had decided to wear his lucky Ft. Myers t-shirt, the shirt that had become his uniform for medical procedure and testing days.

I'll post the rest of the story over the next few days. For now, here's some pictures. They tell the story better then I could anyway.

Ben and our sweet girl in the ER. Ben was about to have blood drawn, a chest x-ray, an EKG and vitals taken.

Waiting in the pre-transplant area. Ben had the entire place to himself. Which was fine since he ended being in there until around noon on Sunday.

Yeah, that'd be Ben's belly there. Hmmmm, liver disease or pregnancy? I never did get to make him that "Does this liver make me look fat?" t-shirt.

One of the nurses was nice enough to take some pictures during the transplant for us. It gets a little gory for these next few. You've been warned . . .

That would be a huge chunk of Ben laying open there. You can see the new liver in place. Take a few seconds to look at how smooth and red it is.

And now, to understand how truely sick Ben was, here's his liver. This image will be a constant reminder of why Ben decided to go through this painful process. When I first saw this, I was amazed, and still am. He was still working full-time, still playing with our daughter, still helping out around the house, still so very much himself.

And finally, the most beautiful scar in the world. It will always be a reminder of the amazing gift Ben was given by a family that will never know him, a family that in their most painful days, made an incredible choice. I wish that I could tell them that their gift will not be wasted. That they gave a wife her husband back, a daughter her daddy back, a brother his sibling back, and to an incredible set of parents, their son back.

So that's it for now. Ben's back off to surgery in the morning to close up his muscle layer. I'll update more when he gets through this next stage.