Hi Mom!

Last week while at Emory I went to visit the parents of a 6 month old boy waiting for a heart transplant at Egleston. I told them how fantastic the people at Egleston are and they have the same doctors and coordinator that Danny had his first 6 years with his new heart. I told them Danny needed a new heart and that transplants were NOT a cure (something I forgot after the first few years because Danny was doing so well). Transplants are a way to manage life with heart disease and not a promise. No, I didn’t tell them about Mary when they asked how many children I have. Why make myself cry and them feel bad. They have enough to worry about. The baby is in and out of CICU and is on the 1A list. He needs a heart badly. The cool thing about transplanting a baby is they don’t have to match blood types. Ever since they discovered that a few years ago, almost all infants are transplanted, very few on waiting lists for very long.

I have added two songs and a video to this site. The first song I wrote when Danny was in the ICU after his first heart transplant. I am not the same person I was back then but I still like the song.

The second song is one I found after we were told he needed another transplant in 2004. It still helps me when I walking down Danny’s path. Not so much with Mary’s journey, not yet.

The video is of Mary Skydiving. You can tell how nervous she is by how many times she opens her mouth to take a deep breath and lick her lips. You, too, can hear her say “Hi Mom!”.