Dad's Thank You

David "Chunk" Gibson - Lung Transplant

As most of you may know, at 7:11 p.m. Thursday evening, daddy got the call that there was a donor available for his lung transplant. He and mom hauled butt to Charlottesville and dad went under the knife at about 1:00 a.m. Momma, Sarah and I tossed and turned in the waiting room until about 7:00 a.m. when we got a call that the surgery went well and daddy had a new lung.

They wanted to put in two new lungs, but it took about 2 hours to get out daddy's right lung, whereas it usually takes about 20 minutes to remove a lung. The doctor's couldn't afford to risk putting that much stress for that lung on the sole new lung while trying to remove his left lung. While daddy may still have his "bad" left lung, it was doing most of the work before the surgery anyway.

Throughout the process, daddy has consistently surprised us with how well he has handled the surgery and recovery. He was responsive and aware mere hours after the surgery when we were told he'd be out for days while they had the breathing tube in. Since then, they've removed most of the breathing assistance and he's been moving about and progressing faster and better than I think anybody has really anticipated.

Although all has gone well so far, he is far from being out of the woods. He is still at risk of infection and rejection of the new lung. As daddy mentioned in his video message, he'll have to be very conservative with visitors and social activity for a bit after surgery. But all the concern and prayers have been a real blessing and we couldn't thank everybody enough.

If you have any other questions or concerns for Chunk, just contact me, mom, or Sarah. Thanks again!