10/9

I was thinking a lot today… just here… alone with my thoughts..

I thought a lot about the night before my transplant and the whole day leading up to it…

I was woken up early in the morning with a call from the eye doctor that they had an earlier appt available in 30 mins.. and I was excited to be able to go because my glasses were so old… I gratefully got out of bed and got myself there. While there they asked about any new medical conditions so I told them I was in need of a transplant etc., the eye doctor looked me right in the eyes and said, you will get one. I thought that was really nice of her, but I knew I wasn’t high enough on the list and wasn’t going to get one… so I just responded, that will be really nice if that happens.

I came back home and slept until Brandon woke me up in the evening to get ready for his long time friend/cousin’s viewing.

I was in so much pain when we went. And if it wasn’t hard enough to be there for that… it was really so upsetting. I went outside for a bit and on my way out I looked at the desk where I sat to set up Jay’s service and literally thought to myself I should just go ahead and set mine up while I’m here, but quickly got rid of that idea because how inappropriate would that be to do while someone else’s service was going on… so I continued on outside. I began talking to the funeral director. I’ve known him my whole life since he went to school with my dad and they are friends. We did end up talking about my condition and he said that I have a good team at UPenn and that he thinks I’ll get a liver… again I went right back into my head thinking…well that’s not going to happen, but it was nice of him to say…

I left there feeling completely defeated and thought ok, I’ll set it up tomorrow after the funeral….

Brandon and I headed home.

I talked to my dad for a few minutes and he was telling me about someone that was in an accident and his organs are being donated. I was immediately saddened for his family. I know that feeling so well. It’s horrible and you feel like you’re in a time warp. He then called me back a little bit later and told me that liver is going to someone else. My response? “Well that’s good. They need a liver too and this one wasn’t meant for me. It’s ok.”

I went to my room and had been vomiting from the amount of pain that I was in and the emotional stress from the day.

My last prayer before I went to bed was…. “God, please either let me go tonight or heal me tonight. I can’t take this pain and sickness anymore. I can’t take seeing my kids watch me die a slow death either… it’s just too much now.” I fell asleep right after that and was awoken to a phone call at 2:30am. It was the gift of life program. The woman had to answer my same repeated question that I asked her 5 times in a row… “You’re calling Megan Hendry? You have a liver for me?” She kept giving me the same answer… yes, we need you to pack a bag for 7 days and we will call you back when it’s time to head in so get some rest in the meantime… Rest? Nah! I was in total shock, calling everyone in the middle of the night because I was going to be healed. I wasn’t even close to being “next on the list” so the only reason I was getting this liver is because the man who was donating it… his cousin had signed up to give me a ride to a doctor appt asked the wife if it could go to me. I didn’t know her before the day of the doctor appt… it was purely because she wanted to help when she saw my website and signed up. God did that.

I had already been telling people my goodbyes for a few weeks… however, not my immediate family since I wanted to save them for last to preserve their hearts… I was at peace with it all. This was happening and I had no control over it anyway.

I had the priest coming to give me my last rights at 3pm the 9th. I thought to myself, ok that’s good because I can still get myself to the funeral before he comes out to see me… I knew I was dying. I had 24-48 hours. I knew that but I held it in to myself.

But instead… 9/9/26… the day I was going to die I got a liver instead. It’s been 30 days today. I am still finding myself in shock that I am alive.