Taking the first step to begin anything is typically hard and that includes the first step towards walking after a heart transplant.
However, today John took that step! And then he took another and another and another! Today John walked up the hall and back again in the morning and in the afternoon. It was glorious watching him, with his new, strong, healthy heart, walking after all he has been through.
Getting up and taking the first step was painful because of his incision and the atrophy in his legs. But after he got going he continued getting faster and faster. It was obvious that something was different. There was no heavy breathing, no stopping. His heart kept him going like it hasn’t in a long, long time.
So there was no surprise when the results of his right heart catheterization came back glowing. His heart is strong and healthy!
Tomorrow we will find out the results of his heart biopsy. Today it was the first of many, and it will tell us, using a grading scale, the level of rejection of his new heart – if any. The doctors will then adjust his rejection medications in order to balance not having any rejection from his body of the new heart while also protecting his immune system from being too compromised.
We are so proud of him, and we continue to be amazed at the miracle behind John’s story. I have prayed for months for a miracle, and I had faith that God was going to provide it. And He did. Not even one time, but several. Every nurse and doctor who has seen John over the past two weeks go from fine, to literally dying, to being on life support, to getting a heart two days later, to not waking up, and now talking and walking and begging to go home calls him “a miracle”. They cannot believe it’s the same person!
There are no words for the joy I feel. And it is all a gift out of God’s mercy, grace, and love!
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