My Transplant Experience

by Franklin D. Heintz, Jr.

"Mr. Heintz, it is 1:06 p.m. Halloween Day, and you have been transplanted." Who would have known, those would be the first words I would hear of my "new life." My transplant journey began on August 10, 1998 when I was officially listed with the United Network of Organ Sharing's (UNOS) waiting list, and 82 days later I was laying in Ochsner Foundation Hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with the "gift of life."

October 30, 1998 started out like any other day. I spent the day shopping; my 25th birthday was a few days before. I was looking to get that extra special birthday gift. How, was I to know that the "greatest birthday gift," I could ever receive was just a phone call away? I arrived home at 6:15p.m. where I discovered my mother on the phone with Kathy Walker, Ochsner's Pre-Transplant Coordinator.

The conversation followed:

Kathy Walker: "Mrs. Heintz, this is Kathy Walker is Frankie there?"
Mrs. Heintz: "Kathy Walker…yes Frankie is here."
Kathy Walker: "Well, you are going to be the first to know."
Mrs. Heintz: "First to know…."
Kathy Walker: "I have a set of lungs for Frankie"
Mrs. Heintz: "Are you kidding?"
Kathy Walker: "No mama, I never kid about things like this."

That conversation was short and straight to the point and it's effects would change the rest of my life. I was truly never really prepared for it, and how it would impact the rest of my life. All the things that I had rehearsed, all the things that I wanted to do when I got "the call," I never did.

My parents and I, arrived at the Emergency Room at 6:45p.m. At this point it seemed like things were moving in fast forward. I was rushed immediately to admitting, where the paperwork was waiting, where all it took was my signature. It felt like I had just signed my life over to Ochsner, and to be honest I just had.

At 7:00p.m. I found myself lying in ICU with my parents; Kathy Walker was calling and taking phone calls from the transplant team. A nurse was drawing blood for various lab work and tests. Things seemed to move at a feverish pace. I had already been told that I was not going into surgery until 12:15a.m. October 31, Halloween, but it did not matter to me. The waiting was over no matter what happened now; I was doing what I wanted to do. I was going to be transplanted.

For the next five hours, my family and friends came in an out of my room to wish me the best of luck. At this point all, I could do was sit and stare at the clock. I was tired of waiting, but I had waited 81 days another five hours were not going to hurt. At mid-night Kathy Walker entered my room and announced it was time, the orderlies were ready to take me into surgery. As, I was wheeled out of ICU into surgery; I thanked Kathy Walker for the late birthday present she had was giving me.

To this point I was calm, when I reached the operating room things changed. I finally realized what I was getting ready to do, if something were going to go wrong I would never know. I looked up at the anesthesiologist and asked him if he would talk to me. "I am getting nervous and I am almost to the point where I want to change my mind," I admitted. He looked down at me on the table and said you will never remember a thing, he "pushed" something into my PICC Line, that was 12:20a.m. Halloween. Surgery began at 2:20a.m. and lasted for eight hours.

I do not remember much from ICU, people tell me that is best, but all I can remember honestly is "Mr. Heintz it is 1:06p.m. Halloween day and you have been transplanted" those few words seem to stick with me for some reason. I tried to answer her, but being on the ventilator it was rather difficult for me.

Sunday, November 2nd, I was taken off the ventilator and by Tuesday, November 4th I was moved to a regular room to begin the road to recovery. The next two weeks were filled with countless visits from physicians, nurse, and physical therapists. I was learning how to live all over again. All that I had been taught before transplant, all I had come to know, I had to forget. My lifestyle and habits needed to be changed. I was starting over; it was a brand new life like nothing I had ever experienced before.

Everyone wanted to know what it felt like to breathe for the first time in my life. I never knew of away to put into words until day 10. I was sitting in my room watching television, and I began to cry. My mother panicked an asked what was hurting me. Through the tears I told her nothing, I had just laughed for the first time in 25 years without coughing. I had just discovered what it was like to laugh and not cough. Something that everyone else took for granted, this was something I had never experienced before until then. All that I had been through, had just become worth it with that one laugh.

My recovery seemed to move quickly from that point on. My chest tubes were removed 10 days after surgery. I had my first set of Pulmonary Function Tests (PFT's) 11 days after surgery they were normal. For the first time in my life, I had PFT's that came close to those of a healthy person. Things began to fall into place, I was exercising had energy, could speak an entire sentence without having to stop in the middle to take a breath, I am now hyper.

On Friday, November 13th, I was released from Ochsner, to begin my new life. My life had been turned up-side down or maybe right side up depending on how you look at it. From my point of view things were turned right side up. All I had to do now was stick to all the new medications and take care of myself an I could have the life I had always dreamed of, without the limitations of my cystic fibrosis.

The End