She wants to be a doctor. Sara has wanted to be a doctor since being a young child. She is now graduated from UCSC in biology and determined that she will go to medical school. Life is giving her a unique and special training being the sister of Anna. She has always lived with CF in the family and she is now participating in Anna's care and support, gaining first hand knowledge of lung disease, chronic genetic illness, and of course its impact upon the family. Sara also has an amazing, incredible job at Stanford University that is adding depth and drama to this whole experience.
In June Sara began working in the Cystic Fibrosis Research Laboratory at Stanford. As a lab assistant she performs many functions but one of them is quite special and serendipitously related to our current lives waiting for Anna's transplant. Not only is Sara waiting for Anna's transplant as a sister, but her job insists that she waits for all lung transplants at the medical center. One of her functions is to go to the OR and retrieve the transplant recipient's old lungs or other airway tissues after they are removed and take them to the lab to be studied. She carries a pager like the doctors, calls in to see if there is a transplant expected and knows how many people are on the list. It blows my mind.
There have been no lung transplants for weeks and weeks until this weekend. Sara had not yet had the actual call to retrieve tissue from the OR until this weekend. On Friday eve she knew a lung transplant was to be performed before she traveled back over 17 to Santa Cruz. She called us, so excited, "finally now I get to go to the OR!" This is thrilling for a young woman who is wanting to go to medical school and become a doctor. This is also emotional and an unusual part of the transplant adventure she is having with her sister.
Sara only slept in fits and starts through the night at the apartment as the surgery was delayed and delayed. When it was time to go in the morning she told us how she was shaking from excitement and first time nervousness as she donned her gown prior to entering the room where the miracle for this person was happening. Wow, Sara, what a trip! She said everyone was warm and friendly, it was a good atmosphere and huge to step into the space where a lung transplant was happening.
On Saturday, Sara slept the afternoon away after her incredible high. In the evening she was to visit friends when she called us just before 11PM, "can you believe it? There is another transplant tonight. I am getting gas and going back to Stanford!" Two in a row! I guess the drought is ended. This morning she just called, "I got to hold the lungs in my hands!" Sara also met the recipient before entering surgery as he had been on the list such a short time she did not have the signed consent form to use his lung tissue for research. Sara also met the family and saw what it is like to be where we will be soon. And, when in the OR for the lung retrieval, she beamed positive energy to the recipient in the process of the miracle. Hmmmmmmmm. That is all a mom can say at this point.
It is so remarkable to think of Sara in this position. Her professional life and her personal life are intersecting in such a profound way. This happened before. In Sara's junior year at UC she became a hospice volunteer. The training was deep and poignant. Right after she completed the training, her grandmother lay dying. Sara used her training and sat in vigil with her grandmother with grace and poise. This personal intersection was emotional and very important to her. It seems that this occurrence of circumstances is a way that life is bringing a unique practical training to Sara. It is also bringing a connection and insight into transplant that we would never have along with a drama that heightens and ups the anti of our story.
Isn't it amazing how things fit together? Sara's life is just an example. Isn't it amazing how when you open and follow your life stream that you are given opportunities to grow and expand in ways that are surprising and wonderful? This is a universal human truth. You just have to be open and willing. You also just have to step back and take stock at things that have happened in your life. What was the pattern? How did it fit together? There seems to be a progression. There truly seems to be a story unfolding. This is the wonder and magic in life no matter the experience, joyful, painful, complicated, simple, or what ever........... We all have a one of a kind, special story.
In her story, Sara waits for transplants. She is learning so much in this job, but of course she is most interested in the one call that she will get along with all of us for her sister to go to receive her miracle. Sara will sit with us as we wait for what we hope for, Anna receiving her donor's gift. Someone else from the lab will have to retrieve Anna's old lungs to be studied in the lab. Sara will be with us holding our hands waiting for the surgeon to come to our waiting room and tell us how the surgery went. But, we all will want to visit Anna's old lungs. They will be kept for us after dissection and study so that we can see them and thank them for every breath they took.
wowy kazowy!
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