I would like to dedicate this story about Joe's transplant to the great physician Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctors and nurses who worked so hard to get Joe well. And to the Coordinators who worked with Joe and his family and also to the many people who prayed for Joe everyday and night. And I would also like to dedicate it to the donor and the donor's family. How can we ever say thank you? Thank you seems like 2 small words to compare what the donor did for us.

Joe's story is none like anyone else's.

It was December 6, 2000 and one of the blackest days of my life.

Joe calls me from the doctor's office and he had just gotten the results of his test back. On the other end of the phone, I hear, Mom I have hepatitis c, and it wasn't my gallbladder. Mom, he said, and I don't remember if there was a silence or if I just go into what does this mean. Mom, I will have to have a biopsy and eventually a liver transplant.

Now let me back up a little bit and tell you a little bit of what happened and how this came about. When Joe was 6 years old he had appendicitis and had complications with this surgery. He spent 31 days in the hospital and received a blood transfusion. The time when this happened was in the fall of 1975 and they did not test blood products at this time. So it became apparent that this had been eating on his body for 25 years. At that time I knew nothing about testing the blood to make sure it was safe to use. And let me express to everyone get a second opinion before having any type of surgery if you are not sure that this is what is really going on with your body. It never hurts to be sure of any procedure you are having done. If I had gotten a second opinion about Joe, maybe he would not have been going through what he has had to go through.

The year before we found out about his illness, Joe was working in this area; he would come by our house on his lunch hour and take a nap. I just thought he was really tired and not getting enough rest. He had also been in and out of emergency rooms sense around the year of 1992 with stomach pains and no one had been able to tell us what was wrong with him. The doctors kept thinking it may be a kink in his intestine or it could be scar tissue building up inside his lower part of his body. About a year before we found out he had gone to the Terrell emergency room and they found his liver enzymes were up and told him to have it checked out. Instead of finding out more he blew it off to just because he was sick.

Christmas came and went and he looked good, but after the first of the year 2001 he headed down hill. Being in and out of the hospital and having ascites, (swelling of the belly area and limbs and leaking fluids). Going to the doctors and having liver biopsies and starting the procedure to get on the transplant waiting list became our way of life. The day he had his liver biopsy, which was supposed to be an easy procedure became a chore. It took the doctor three tries to get the biopsy. His liver was so badly diseased and it had shrunk so small.

In March, a week before his liver evaluation Joe had to have his gallbladder removed. Which required a couple days in the hospital. He recovered from this surgery.

The week he went to his evaluation was going to be a busy week for him and his family. Going to meetings with family members and being interviewed and his case reviewed by the transplant team and finding out that he made the list was wonderful news. He made the list at a 2b. We were told that he would get his new liver 3 to 5 years. "WOW" taking this all in and it happening so fast was unbelievable. It is a family affair and support for your loved one. Being there for your loved one is one of the most important things you can do.

Joe went home to wait it out and to go back to as much normal life as he could. But his body was sicker then anyone knew. He would come back to the hospital and stay for a couple of weeks and go home for a couple of days and come back and stay again and this went on and on for about 2 weeks. His ascites were getting worse and his color was very yellow. He would also do things out of the ordinary because his ammonia levels were high. His bilirubin numbers were going up and I believe they were around 48 in April.

About 2 weeks before Joe got his liver, Joe and I had a conversation about what was and wasn't medically possible and I told him that God could do anything and that everything would be okay. He would say some things are just not medically possible and again I expressed to him that God could move mountains and would if we ask in His name and had faith that He would. I sure found out through this ordeal that God is still in the miracle business.

In April, he had to have his stomach tapped to drain some of the fluid off. He also made the 2a list that day and we were told that it would be 2 or 3 weeks when he would get his new liver. I was wheeling Joe around the hospital in a wheel chair because he was too weak to walk, but he was strong enough to be out of bed. We were excited because of the timing to get his new liver. That night a friend came and gave him a haircut, because he wanted to be ready when he went to surgery. I went home around 10 p.m.

April, 4:30 a.m. his wife calls and said Joe had been having a bad night and he had passed out in the bathroom and was having a lot of blood passing through him. We jumped out of bed and called his sister and we rushed down to the hospital. When we walked in the room, Joe said ya'll pray for me. We gathered around Joe and prayed. Then the staff came in and took us down to the 4th floor ICU. They hooked Joe up to all his machines and starting let us go in. his wife came out and I went in and Joe said Mom I only see one set of footprints. I said Joe that is the Lord and He will carry you through this. And Joe turned his head and was saying something, but I couldn't understand what he was saying. His nurse came over and ask me to leave. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know how wrong. We stood in the hall way what seemed a long time and then someone came and moved us to a family room and I remember saying I don't like these rooms, they are bad news rooms. His wife and his sister, Nicole said they saw a crash cart go in Joe's pod, but they didn't say anything about that until after everything was over. It seemed like hours before a doctor came out and talked to us. He told us that he had exhausted everything he could do for Joe and they had done everything possible for Joe. I don't remember this but he said I stood up and said, "You will save my son". He went back into take Joe's tubes out of his mouth, and Joe bit him. He told someone later he had not gotten a heartbeat or blood pressure or anything on Joe for about 20 minutes. I didn't realize that was what he was telling me. I just knew my child had to be okay. I had faith that God was going to save his life and he would be okay. The fight was on to save Joe. Sometime that morning we got to go in to see Joe. They were suctioning Joe as fast as they could and my baby was laying there fighting for his life. I am so glad he is a fighter and he is strong. In 24 hours they had given Joe around 250 units of blood.

The hospital halls and waiting area begin to fill up with family and friends.

I think it was about 5:30 p.m. when a doctor that we had not seen came in with a nurse to talk to us about Joe. I will never forget his words. He told us Joe had 0% chance of making it through the night like he was; but he had a 5% chance if we removed his liver. We discussed it with Joe's primary and his support councilor and with each other and we decided that 5% was better then 0%. So we said go for it. We didn't have a liver to go back in Joe and we didn't know if we would get one. But God knew Joe had a 100% chance of making it. So off to surgery Joe went, and he returned around midnight to ICU. That was a long waiting time. And about an hour after he returned, the doctor walked into the family room with news that we had a liver, but they didn't know if it would work or any of the details for Joe to get it and we wouldn't know until around 8 a.m. It was a very exhausting and trying time for all of us to be going through this, but how could we think of ourselves when Joe was going through something so serious himself. The answer to this is God was carrying him through this and us too. That is where our hope lies and our faith. I couldn't write this without giving credit to who was totally in control. God was guiding and directing the doctors and nurses all the way.

The next day, one of the nurses came out and asks that we call people and ask that they didn't come because of the overflow of people the night before. The waiting area is not very large so we complied with the request. They took Joe back to surgery around 10 a.m. because the liver turned out to be a good one for Joe. So his dad and I went home to shower and change and get fresh clothes to take to the hospital. About 1:30 p.m. we were on the way back to the hospital and I got a really bad feeling about the surgery. Something was wrong. When we got to the hospital, the doctors were having a hard time getting his liver in because of the bleeding. I went straight to the chapel and one of the chaplains came in to pray with me. I had to lay Joe in God's arms because my band-aids were not going to fix Joe. I knew that only God could get the liver in and that was a hard thing for me to do because of being a mother. I knew God only let me borrow him and I had to give him back. When we went back up stairs, the doctor came out and said he had gotten the liver in. He had a really big smile on his face. I asked him if I could hug his neck and he said yes. When we got to go back and see Joe he looked wonderful even though I had to look past the tubes and everything he had hooked up to him. He also had a heating bag on his body. I suppose this was to bring his temperature to normal. His head and chest was very swollen. It was very scary. Somehow I held it together and talked to him and praying that he could hear us.

If you do anything for your loved one let it be to talk to them. Read to them, pray for them, and talk to them just like you would if they were awake and talking back to you. Put photos up on the wall of your family or their pet, so if they should open their eyes, they will see them, turn their favorite TV programs on or radio stations or play their favorite cd's or tapes. Anything that they are familiar with will help. Joe would move his foot back and forth to the music, so we knew he was hearing something. And most of all don't give up unless you are so sure there is no hope. We also had prayer chains everywhere; he even had a prayer chain in Africa going. Prayer works. Matthew 21:21,22

Joe had a long road of healing to do. He woke up about a week later and was talking up a storm when they took his tubes out so he could talk. Big tears were in his eyes and I believe these were tears of joy. He had the tubes out for about 2 or 3 days and they had to put them back in. He had to have his spleen removed and he had a blood clot that killed the right side of his new liver. Then he came down with a lot of infections and a new doctor had to be called in and then he had fluids build up and had to have drain tubes put in and a drain tube put in around his heart because of fluid build up around his heart. It seemed like he had more doctors then we knew could exist. He had a lung doctor, a kidney doctor a heart doctor, an infectious disease doctor, a whole team of transplant doctors, a neurologist doctor, you name it he had it. He had fluid on his lungs; his kidneys weren't working and some days it just seemed like despair. But there again prayer was a really big part of my life and I ask God to cast all of his infections and ailments into the sea and heal Joe's body. Joe also had a new nurse that came in and ordered him a bed that moved his body that would help his lungs not sit still. I think she was an angel. Because this helped his lungs get better. We also had a friend who came and anointed Joe with oil and prayed over him.

Joe was in the 4th floor ICU for ten weeks. He was breaking recorders coming and going. We like to break recorders as long as they were good records. We took the mountains with the valleys but God saw us through with his grace. God doesn't put anything upon us without giving us the grace to get through it.

About the first part or the middle of June, we went to the 8th floor pod to help Joe get weaned off the ventilator. Once Joe was up there he had a nurse on the weekends that gave Joe his first hope of getting well. He took Joe outside to get the first breathe of air since the last of March or the first of April. The look on Joe's face when he went outside was hope. It was very humid that day and hot so he could not stay out very long and it made Joe mad that he didn't get to stay out for a full 5 minutes. Thank you, you do make a difference in a patient life.

The first time they stood Joe up was very hard for him. The nurses put him on a flat table and turned a crank to help him stand up a little bit at a time. He stood up for 8 minutes. The 8th floor pod was a wonderful place for him to be. I called it the miracle pod. Joe started setting goals for himself and yes he had very hard trying days. I am sure days that he just wanted to give up; but as his mom I would not let him give up. He has a life to live and get on with.

Then the Thursday before Labor Day he went to Baylor rehab across the street. He said he was going to be out of there in 3 weeks. I am so proud of his goals. He was a toothpick and he had lost a 100 lbs. And he didn't have much strength, but he had determination and with that, family and prayer that is what it takes to get well. He got back in his saddle at the rehab and he worked hard to build back up so he could go home. His attitude was good, his appetite was great and his determination was wonderful. It was a long battle, but a battle well fought and worth everyday of all of the struggles.

September 19th Joe walked out of the hospital and went home. Joe was home 30 days before he climbed back on his horse. A year later he rode the motorcycle again and on Labor Day weekend, he went down the Mountain Fork River in a flat bottom boat and camped out all weekend. He has had a lot of first since his surgery, but these things won't be his last. Joe is living his life to the fullest. Praise God for this miracle.

August 1st he went back to work and is doing well. He rides his horses, is learning to fly and living his life as full as he can. A lot of changes have gone on in his life in the last 2 years but we can just thank God for all things. Keep up the good work and for having the strength to try the attempts that you do.

If the only thing you do is donate blood, don't look at it as the only thing, because this helped save Joe's life. He used 384 units of blood during his stay and I ask you to be an organ donor also. Being an organ donor also helps save lives. Giving blood and being an organ donor is a gift of life.

Thank you to the volunteers at the hospital who came by and said an encouraging word to us and for the support groups at the hospital. I don't know if I would have had the strength to get through it if it hadn't been for all of you. May God bless all of you. We love you Joe Fowler family

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