Category: heart transplant

One of the nicest things about living in North Carolina is that John’s work is only four miles away, and it only takes about four minutes to get there. Well, more like ten, but not forty like it would in Atlanta. He also gets to come home for lunch everyday. Not only does this save us money, but John gets to rest a little and debrief with ESPN before he goes back to finish the day.

It’s even nicer in the summer because I am home when he comes home from lunch and we get to have lunch together. I always try to schedule my errands around his lunch time so that I am home when he gets home. I only have two months to see him during the day, so I don’t want to waste any of them if I can help it.

I usually have lunch ready for us. After we eat, he lays down in my lap on the sofa so that I can rub his head and scratch his back. Technically, per the doctor’s orders, he is supposed to have a nap every day. Of course in the real world this isn’t possible, so this is our alternative. John is a little spoiled, but he is quite deserving of it (most of the time). I like to tease him and call him “rotten”.

When John gets home from work it’s pretty much the same routine. Now-a-days I need to have everything done that I need to get done before he gets home. His days are long and exhausting, so when he comes home all I want him to do is sit. Typically he is very helpful around the house – cooks, empties the dishwasher, takes out the trash – but for this season he only has one job – to get better and allow his heart to keep him strong until his new one comes.

Sometimes we take a nap when he gets home before dinner. Neither of us usually fall asleep, but it’s nice to just lay down. Most of the time we eat, clean up, and then it’s back to the same routine as at lunch. John lays in my lap, and I rub his head and back until it’s time to go to bed. Again, he’s rotten, but the good kind of rotten.

At times the day-in and day-out is exhausting for me and frustrating for him. However, it is a time that we cherish. We have the opportunity to slow down and really focus on each other, our home, and our life together. All of the distractions have been temporarily put on hold. These are precious memories that we will look back on when life gets hectic again and say, “Remember when all we did was sit around and hold each other?”

I read this verse this morning, and it is perfect. Just perfect.

Over the past week God has brought us so many examples of miracles He has done recently. We know about the miracles in the Bible, but often times we want to rationalize events that occur today so that they aren’t deemed as miraculous.

My sweet friend from Bible study sent me this video of the story behind Josh Wilson’s song “Before the Morning”. His song has been on the blog, but I never knew the story behind it. It is a story of the miraculous, and one in which God used to remind me that He does still perform miracles.

http://www.higherpraisetube.com/video/8451/Must-watch-Before-the-morning–Josh-Wilson

The past week was a roller-coaster starting off as an uphill climb and ending back on flat ground. At the beginning of the week, John was having a lot of trouble breathing especially at night. One night was the worse I had ever seen him as far as him having difficulty breathing. He had to get up and come downstairs to sit in upright in the recliner, something he hasn’t has to do since our hospital visit in May. When he woke up the next morning and weighed himself he had gained four pounds. This is a definite sign that fluid is backing up, and we immediately called the doctor. He gave John a “super water-pill” that they don’t like to prescribe unless absolutely necessary because of the possible damage it could cause to his liver after prolonged use. However, that water-pill did the trick! He has felt much better since then.

Throughout the week, God continued to bring us encouragement through stories of other people who have dealt with chronic illnesses much like John’s. It seems that each time our hope begins to fade, He steps up and hand delivers words and experiences that bring right back up into His Hands.

Lord, we thank you for these blessings this week:

1. Giving us encouragement and hope through the stories of other people who have dealt with chronic illnesses.
2. The medication that helped get fluid off of John’s body and helped him to feel better.
3. Sustaining John’s weak heart and for the strength and energy you have given him to get through his days.
4. Continuing to help us to see Your perspective and make us more like You through this process.
5. John’s health care, doctors, nurses, and the entire transplant team.
6. Our families and friends who offer us continual support and love.
7. My summers off from work so that I can focus on taking care of John and running our household.
8. Your Word that teaches us about the hope we have in You.

This week, Lord, please hear these prayers from us:

1. We pray for John’s heart donor. That he is a Christian or becomes one soon. We pray for his family. That they know You and if not will come to know You through their trials and circumstances. That you will give them love, comfort, hope, and peace. That there is peace in their family presently, and that their relationships continue to build throughout the next several months.
2. Please humble us. Remind us daily from whom all the possibilities of our future come from. Remind us that we are nothing without You and your grace.
3. Please give us Your perspective and understanding of life, the world, our future, and eternity. Help us to have a spiritual and eternal mindset even in the mundane activities of our daily lives.
4. Continue to use this season of our lives to grow us to become your disciples. Help us to be open to Your voice and respond to it out of the Holy Spirit’s leadings.
5. Please continue to sustain John’s heart. Give him energy and strength each day. Give him restful sleep at night. Take away the aches and pains he feels.
6. Please keep defeat and discouragement far from John’s mind and heart.
7. Give me to energy to serve John daily and to be the wife you’ve called me to be for him.
8. Please give John wisdom about work and how much work he needs to safely do each day. Help him to trust in You to meet all of our needs.
9. Be with the transplant team and give them wisdom in treating John.
10. Please send John a healthy heart that will give him many, many more productive years serving You.
11. Of the hearts that become available in the next few months, we pray that one is a perfect match for John. We pray one becomes available in Your timing and no sooner.

Here is more on Erik Compton’s story from just this week.

And here is a story from ESPN.

Originally Published: June 14, 2010

Compton embarks on U.S. Open journey

By Gene Wojciechowski
ESPN.com
Archive

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Rule No. 1 in sports journalism: No cheering in the press box.

Rule No. 2: Unless it’s Erik Compton.

Compton qualified a week ago for the U.S. Open. He did it the day after shooting a disastrous 82 in the final round of the Memorial Tournament. It took him 36 nerve-racking holes, plus another three-hole playoff, before the USGA punched his first ticket to an Open appearance. Check that — his first majors appearance.

Erik Compton will compete in his first U.S. Open, and first major championship, this week at Pebble Beach.

“I would never really change my life, because I’ve experienced so much,” Compton said. “I’ve been able to drive through things. I just keep plugging away.”

Gee, that’s nice, you say. But aren’t there are a handful of unknowns such as Compton who squirm and squeeze their way into an Open field every June? And don’t they all have their little backstories of gutting it out and playing with heart?

Yes, they do. Except that Compton is playing with someone else’s heart.

His own heart called it quits when he was 12 years old — Feb. 26, 1992, to be exact. That’s when surgeons at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital replaced his diseased heart with one from a 15-year-old donor who had been killed by a drunk driver. Her name was Jannine, and she gave Compton the best 16 years she never had.

In May 2008, Jannine’s heart, having done all it could, was replaced with Isaac’s heart. Isaac, a University of Dayton volleyball player, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. And yet here they are — Compton, Jannine and Isaac — together at gorgeous Pebble Beach in a spiritual and physical way that defies explanation.

“I still think of them as a part of me,” Compton said.

He shouldn’t be alive. Compton, 30, admitted as much. The cardiomyopathy could have done him in years ago. Or his body could have rejected Jannine’s heart. Or the heart attack he suffered in 2007 could have killed him. Or Isaac’s heart could have failed.

As it is, Compton’s body has more staple scars than a dorm hall bulletin board. His chest has been cracked open like an oyster shell. And he has no feeling in his upper left leg, thanks to the heart/lung machine lines they ran between his groin and thigh.

“I tell my wife, ‘It’s not a marathon who lives the longest; it’s the quality of your life,’” Compton said. “It’s not really a race.”

That’s not exactly true. Compton tries to cram as much quality into his life as possible. We live day to day; Compton lives minute to minute, second to second.

Makes sense. This is a guy who has said his final goodbyes to family and friends on more than one occasion. You tend to do that when you know surgeons are going to remove your heart from your chest cavity.

Compton has reconciled life and death because he didn’t have any choice. He has asked himself the kinds of questions few people face — and even fewer people can answer.

For instance: Why does he live, but Jannine and Isaac don’t? And always in the back of his mind is the same question: “How long is this heart going to last?”

“I am on my third heart,” he said. “My heart was out of my chest. So I’ve been blessed and lucky to have the stars aligned. … You have to be lucky, and I’ve been lucky along the way.”

Compton has made qualifying runs at majors in the past, but could never put two rounds of golf together. He’d shoot a 66 in the opening 18 and a 79 in the closing round. Part of it was nerves, but part of it was the cumulative physical effects on his body.

Last Monday was different. He was tired (try walking 36 holes under normal circumstances, much less with a transplanted heart and the pressure of Open qualifying), but this time Compton kept grinding away. If he two-putted on the final hole of regulation, he was in. Instead, he three-jacked from 30 feet.

“I went down to the locker room and screamed at myself for a few minutes,” he said. “Then I was eerily calm. I knew it was my time. I wasn’t going to let anybody take it from me.”

A kick-in par on the third playoff hole earned him the final Open spot from the sectional. Five days later he was standing on the No. 1 tee box at Pebble for a nine-hole mini-practice round. He had walked parts of the course years ago, but had never played it — until this past Saturday.

“Pretty special place, man,” he said, not bothering to hide the excitement in his voice.

Will he win the Open? I hope so. So does his wife, Barbara, and his father, Peter, and all the friends and family making the trip to Pebble this week. And so does Isaac’s family, who met Compton a year ago at the Memorial (fitting name, eh?).

Compton shouldn’t be alive, but he is. He could have wilted during the sectional playoff, but he didn’t. He might be defined by Thursday’s and Friday’s Open scorecards, but he won’t — at least not by me.

“Greatness is greatness,” said Compton, who has relied on sponsor exemptions to play on tour this season. “I told my wife I just want to feel the feeling of greatness. I’d love to feel what those guys feel who win every four, five weeks. Or maybe my feeling of greatness is qualifying for the Open.”

He said this as his 14-month-old daughter, Petra, cooed and giggled in the background. Petra was born Feb. 22, but her due date was the 26th — the same day Compton received his first transplant.

Anyway, there’s only one word you can use to describe Compton’s story.

Heartwarming.

Gene Wojciechowski is the senior national columnist for ESPN.com. You can contact him at gene.wojciechowski@espn.com. Hear Gene’s podcasts and ESPN Radio appearances by clicking here.