"Did you just say Circuit?"

Alright, Chelsea here. It's all over and everything went great! There are some great comments by Becky and Jamie under Josh's last blog under comments. They were both writing before and during the surgery, so its full of detatils of what it was like while it was all happening. I'll try my best to remember everything now, but I just got back from the hospital after spending the night with Josh.

So when we go to the hospital and Josh was brought in the holding room (the big room with everyone waiting for surgery on beds) we were told by Cailin (transplant coordinator) that the surgery was actually on hold. Apparently a bunch of deseased organs came in over the weekend (none for us!) that needed to be transplanted right away, so there were more surgeries then planned. After that we werent really told much, so Josh, Jamie and I just hung out waiting in the holding area while everyone else sat in the waiting room next door. We thought we'd be waiting a while, we were getting the impression the surgery would be pushed back a few hours. Then out of nowhere it was like we were surrounded by nurses with stockings and papers and a hair cap thingy saying "its time!" and off they wheeled him! It was very overwhelming and really emotional. Thats when Josh started to get really upset and scared. It was so hard to see him so scared and not be able to do anything about. To have to say goodbye and not be by his side. It was heartbreaking. Ive never seen him so scared. Right outside the doors to all the surgery rooms (22 in total!) they let me run to get everyone else to come say goodbye quickly. So Linda, Becky, Aunt Patty, my Mom, Brad , Rikki and Alison all came and said their goodbyes. and off he went.

Wow...what a crazy moment.
But it wasnt over, there was still one more person to get ready for the surgery.

First I went to the waiting room to collect myself. When i got there brad and rikki handed me a box from Josh. My husband...the one giving away half his liver..had written me a song and made me a shirt because he knew Id be upset after he went in. What a great husband. I couldnt believe it.

Funny Josh, made me a tanktop with a picture of a liver and an incision mark! Oh Josh. On top of that, he wrote me a beautiful song....it was so perfect for the moment. He knew everything I would be feeling and said all the right things to fix it.

I honestly have the best husband ever.

After that I went up to Brian's room with Ali and Rikki because not only had Josh taken the time to write a song for me..he wrote one for his Dad too. Becks and Linda were already up there praying with Brian. When they were done I handed him the headphones. He cried...but he seemed so happy to hear Joshs voice singing to him. Again, before you know it....nurses show up and are rushing to get him ready and moved to the holding room. He started to seem to get really scared, but thankfully once we got done there he slept. When we said goodbye to Brian he was still relaxed and sleeping. Which was nice to see.

Then we waited....alllll day. It actually went by pretty fast. We had the prime spot in the waiting room with couches in the corner. We slept, played Uno, drank starbucks. It was SOOO great to have a great support group. Thank you friends.

A nurse came to let us know that the actual transplant was taking place and both were doing great! what a relief to get an update.

Then at about 2:30 Joshs surgeon (Dr.Grieg) came in and explained to us how great Joshs surgery had gone. All the cuts went perfect and he barely bled. No blood transfusion! Brian was still doing great but would be a few more hours.

I think other then the pre surgery time, the time waiting to be allowed to go see Josh seemed like forever! He needed to be in recovery for a while and then moved to the step down unit. FINALLY we got to go see him. The good thing with being a donor is everyone kinda breaks the rules. Instead of only two visitors, Me, Ali, Rikki, Brad James and my mom were all able to go in. Linda and Patty waited in the waiting room to hear when Brians surgery was done.

When we got in Josh was still very out of it. He could barely get his words out but the first thing he said was "WOW!". He couldnt believe it was all done. The second thing "Hows Dad?". It was scary and crazy seeing him with all these things in him. In most cases it would be a kind of soft and somber moment. Not with Josh. We all knew that when it was all over, he would really want LOTS of pictures and video to see what he looked like and what he was doing. So we did! We got some funny videos of him trying to talk. Everytime he would try to say something 6 people would all lean in real close to try to hear him. At one point he managed to get out "everyone give my wonderful wife a round of applause" haha. Later I asked him something like "how are you feeling?" He crinkled his face for a second kinda confused and then said "did you just say circuit?". Only Josh...

He kept saying that everything made sense in his head, but he couldn't say it right. I kept telling him to try to just give in and sleep but he responded " i want to try to do stuff so they think Im a miracle donor so I can get out of here in 2 hrs". He is just like his Dad. If you dont know him well, you think he's talking gobbly gooop...but if you do know him, you realize he's still full of his great sense of humour. At one point he said "i had a dream....and you were there..and you were there.." (wizard of Oz).
My Mom just told me something amazing. Josh has been reading this book called The Shack. I havent read it, so all I know are the parts Josh has told me, but I know alot of you have so this will mean something to you. Basically its a true story written by a man whos young daughter was murdered. He has all these crazy encounters with God while he tries to cope with his daughters death. God visits him in many different ways, and one of them was that God was a black woman. Well apparently yesterday Josh kept asking his mom if a black woman was in the room. He has been seeing this woman standing in the room with him! wow. That is crazy.

Brian was finally out and ready to be seen around 8pm. Becky and I went in. Boy that was hard. He had so many tubes and things. He had a tube down his throat breathing for him. But he is with it and knew what was going on. Which made it worse. He couldnt speak to tell the nurses what was hurting, which I could tell was frustrating for him. He tends to get panicky sometimes in hospital, and we could see he was going there. Because of that, the nurses decided to take the tube out of his throat. They also assured us that even though he looked bad, he was actually doing very very well. What great news.

Shortly after that everyone left. I got a wonderful little chair to sleep in with non egyptian cotton sheets and plastic pillows. I actually had a great sleep though. And so did Josh. He would randomly try having a conversation with me in the middle of the night, which was kinda funny. This morning he was still acting kinda funny, but he's waking up more and more. Sometimes I will ask him something and he wont answer. When I say "Josh?" he goes "oh sorry, I answered you in my head".

Im just getting freshened up and ready to head back with my mom. Believe it or not, they will be getting Josh up and moving a bit today. Good thing he has that morphine button!

It feels SOOOOO good that the surgery is over. Josh keeps saying he's so happy its over and hes not scared anymore. There is still LOTS of recovery for both of them. But the fact that is going so well already is a huge relief.