Brenda Rodgers

Category: heart transplant

  • It’s Eight Years Post Heart Transplant!

    It’s Eight Years Post Heart Transplant!

    I know exactly where I was sitting eight years ago at this very moment. I was in Duke Hospital, and I had just received the news that my husband received a heart donation. Surgery would start later tonight, and it would continue until 5:00 in the morning on August 7th.

    That seems like a lifetime ago. So much so that sometimes people will ask me, “How’s your husband doing?” in an off-the-cuff way, and I hesitate wondering why they’re asking me that. Then I remember, “Oh yeah, the heart transplant.”

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  • Five Years Ago There Was a Heart Transplant

    I’ll never forget reading the statistics of life expectancy one year, five years, and ten years out from a heart transplant. My mind couldn’t get to October being here much less five years down the road.

    And here we are.

    It’s been five years since my husband’s heart transplant. You can read the whole story here, but for an up-to-date, intimate family look at life then and now, here’s a little video I made.

    John is healthy and doing very well. We’re expecting our second baby girl in October. To God be the glory. He gets every ounce of the honor. We are so grateful for a gift we don’t deserve, and we’re praising His holy name.

    John’s Heart Transplant :: A Look Back from Triple Braided on Vimeo.

  • Joy in Suffering and a Heart Transplant

    The time of year has come again. I’m writing this post on August 3rd, and as I think back to this day four years ago, my husband was on life support. He was waiting for a donor heart to become available. If he didn’t get a heart within the week, he would die. He got one on August 6th, and had his transplant that night.

    I remember how time stood still for me that week. When your husband is about to have a heart transplant, statistics become very important to you. I would read the survival rates for heart transplant patients after one year of transplant and then after two years, after five years, ten years, and so on. But I thought to myself that I couldn’t even imagine October coming much less a year – or more.

    And now here we are – four years later.

    Joy in Suffering and a Heart Transplant (more…)

  • An Open Letter to My Husband’s Heart Donor’s Family

    Dear Family Whom I Do Not Know,

    Every time from now until forever, when the sun rises on August 6th, it shines differently for you and me. For you, a reminder that time does go on, and it’s gone on another year without the one you love. For me, a reminder that my husband was born again in a sense, and there is hope after night sweats of darkness. For you mourning. For me joy.  It’s a dichotomy that pounds in my head because I want to understand. But I don’t.

    I do not want to take away what you feel on this day. Your mourning is yours, and you are justified in feeling it. I would feel it, too, if I were you. Confusion, anger, loneliness, despair. No miracle takes away the agony. It perhaps, just maybe, gives it a context if we’re fortunate, but that’s about it. There’s still a hole. It is deep. Nothing replaces it.

    So I won’t try to convince you that there’s a purpose, a reason, a plan. I know that there is, as jumbled as it seems, but I simply do not know what it could be. I’m still just as baffled as you. “Why me?” lingers in my head, too. Just for a different reason.

    All I want to say is “Thank You” once again, out loud. One more thank you that will extend until the next time the calendar hits upon this date.

    And I want to show you a photograph.

    An Open Letter to My Husband's Heart Donor's Family

    This past year something special occurred. Another heart was created because of your gift. It’s small and it’s strong and it’s a girl.

    I will never understand, but I know this. Your husband, father, son, relative, friend is not forgotten. The hole remains. New life abounds. Not once. But twice. And who knows? Maybe even again one day.

    So may this photograph make the sunshine look differently today. If only for today. Know that I am forever grateful. And one day she will be, too. When we tell her how her heart made it to this world.

    My prayers are with you. May God continue to give you His peace and His strength.

  • 3 Hearts Made 1 Baby: Our Story of Hope After Transplant

    We stood in the chapel on the sixth floor of Duke University Hospital.  Hands clasped, heads bowed, and eyes closed.  The circle tight – there were seven of us in all, some related by blood and some related by spirit – our hearts focused as one.

    Each person’s turn shared the same begging to God – please help John recover from his heart transplant, please help his organs wake up, please let him wake up, please don’t let him die.

    Then it was my sister-in-law’s turn – John’s sister. She prayed for all of these miracles just like the rest of us, and then she prayed for something extra – something a little more.  She prayed for new life – not of the soul kind or of the life-span kind, but of flesh and blood, a new life that may just possibly come from this man who lay down the hall with a different heart in his chest than the one that was there the day before.

    “Please, Lord” , she asked, “please, bless Brenda and John with a baby one day.  Maybe even many babies”.

    And there in the depths of despair and feelings of hopelessness there was hope.

    So through the next several weeks when I sat daily in the same chapel on the sixth floor, alone and quiet, I, too, began to pray for a flesh-and-blood life to come out from the new heart John received.

    Today that child is here with me in this room tucked deep inside my womb, a prune length size, only eleven weeks old.

    We’re going to have a baby . . .  The miracles continue . . .

    The man whose life ended abruptly, without warning or hint that his time had come, gave his heart to John to live some years longer here with me.  And now, that same heart made it possible to create a brand new life – of the flesh and blood and soul kind.  Who knows how much more life his heart left behind will create as it now pounds in John’s chest.

    And our donor’s family. How I wish I knew them by name.  Just to show them how their selflessness in the middle of agonizing grief produced miracles – more than we can count.

    Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your continuous grace upon our lives and for giving us the precious gift of this baby.  We give you every ounce of the praise, glory, and honor.

    The month of April is Donate Life Month. Are you registered to be an organ donor?  I encourage you to please consider it.  I am happy to answer any questions you may have based on our experience.  You can email me at brenda@brendarodgers.com.  And please visit Donate Life America for more information.

    So now I begin preparing to be a mommy. I can’t wait to share this new journey with you. I know I will need more of your words of wisdom than my words here can give, so please offer them graciously! And if you have a spare prayer, we would be most grateful for prayers for our sweet child!

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  • Become an Organ, Eye, or Tissue Donor!

    Today is National Donor Day along with Valentine’s Day, and I couldn’t let it go by without asking you to please BECOME A DONOR!

    My husband had a heart transplant almost two years ago.  It was a miracle in the making, but he almost didn’t receive an organ match in time.  Please consider registering and discuss your choice with your family.  They need to know your desires as well. 

    And THANK YOU to all of the donors, and THANK YOU to all of the families who have loved ones who are or were organ donors.  We appreciate your gift more than words can express! 

    If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know!  I will be more than happy to talk to you about our experience or point you to the information you need.  There is a lot of misinformation about organ donation, so please do the research yourself.