Surreal Life

I recognize that I live a slightly different life than most, but some days are even odd for me. Yesterday morning, I woke up with the sun. (I had forgotten to close my balcony blinds.) I was sitting on the couch watching a Law and Order rerun thinking about what I was going to wear to church, and the fact that breakfast would have been a lot easier if I had gone to the grocery store when my phone rings.

Phone calls before 8 am aren't usually from friends saying hello. True to form - it was the transplant coordinator. We had an offer for heart/lungs and I was needed to go out for the procurement. I said okay, and started to replan my day in my head. Usually, you hear about transplants hours before you actually leave to go anywhere. Not so much this time. I was asked if I could be at the hospital ready to leave within 30 minutes. After a shower that only included the necessities, I headed off to the hospital.

When I arrive, I ask the perfusionist where we are going to harvest. Puerto Rico he answers. Well, that is different. We jump aboard our little plane and head off to Puerto Rico. A quick word about little planes. Luckily, flying has never bothered me, even on these tiny 4-6 seater planes that we take on harvest. The scary part to me is being able to see and talk to the pilot while he is flying the plane. There are some things I would rather not see and know. For instance, we had been in the air about 15 minutes yesterday when I see the pilot pull out a map. He and the copilot are looking intently at the map and then out their windows. I am not sure I like knowing that we might be lost at 40,000 feet.

We finally arrived in Puerto Rico and headed off to the hospital. I scrub in to take a look at the heart and lungs and realise that I am the only person at the table that speaks English. I am told that theoretically everyone in PR learns English in school. I think they learn English about like I learned Spanish - not at all. Thankfully, some things are universal and we worked it out. We get our organs and headed home. All in all it took 20 hours, but it was a unique experience even for my life.