One day post-transplant update

Kate got a new heart yesterday! In talking to the team, it’s a very strong, healthy heart. It was quite the roller-coaster of a day.

Kate is still highly sedated. She has chest tubes and her sternum has yet to be closed up from surgery. She’s on a respirator  and still on ECMO to help give her lungs a chance to calm down and start to make friends with her new heart.

We had to move out of our huge room today. Yesterday we got to stay in it for Kate’s surgery, which was nice.  Instead of waiting in a cold, dim, windowless room we were able to stay in our home of 4 months. It was bitter sweet leaving. We were really thankful for the great room. Maybe we’ll get back to it but for now we are elsewhere.

On the positive side today, music therapy stopped by. Erinn is amazing with Kate and it was great to see her stop by. While we were singing our normal songs Kate started to react by moving a bit and taking some breaths on her own. We’ll take small positive signs.

Kate is still in a very critical condition. There were a few bumps in the road in the last 36 hours that we don’t feel comfortable sharing. We are far from out of the woods. She’s stable though, which is good. It’s extremely emotional being here. This is the first time in a long time that I feel helpless to help her. Please send thoughts, prayers, good vibes or any healing juju Kate’s way.