Fix a Heart [h.s.]

Author's Note *Important* *Please Read*

Alright, this is not an update nor does it have much to do with this story. Nonetheless, this is something very important to me and I thought it made perfect sense to post it here, considering the topic. If you take a minute to read this I will be extremely grateful.

                To begin, I guess I’ll just tell you that the past few months have been very hard for my family for a number of reasons.

                About a year ago my uncle was diagnosed with a very serious liver disease. I’m not going to explain what exactly it was; I’ll just say that it was causing his liver to shut down. He never really told anyone how serious it was because he’s just one of those people who don’t like to be worried about. I was scared because, of course, I love him. He practically raised my sister and I when my parents weren’t around, which was pretty often.

                So about two weeks before Christmas this past year, his condition got worse and he was hospitalized. They tried treating him but all of the results were only temporary and there came a point where they couldn’t do much for him anymore. It came down to the fact that he was going to need a liver transplant.

                Like I mentioned in this story, organ transplants are not as common as they should be. So many people who need a transplant never receive one, or end up waiting until it’s too late. That’s exactly what I expected to happen to my uncle. I just kept thinking that the chance of him actually receiving a transplant was so slim that I might as well not get my hopes up. I honestly thought that something like this could never happen to my family. I read stories about it and I even wrote one about it, but I never thought I would be affected by it the way I was.

                It was terrifying. Watching someone die and writing about it are two completely different things. Honestly, you can’t even prepare yourself to watch something like that. When I went to visit my uncle in the hospital just two weeks ago, I didn’t even recognize him. He was so skinny; skin and bones actually describes him perfectly. When I saw him I had to leave the room because I just broke down and started crying. He was a completely different person. After that I thought there was no way he would survive. I didn’t think he could live that way for another couple of days, it was absolutely horrible.

                Anyway, to the point of it, this past week something really amazing happened, which is exactly why I’m writing this in the first place. My uncle received a liver transplant. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever heard. I just saw him today for the first time since then, which has really made me want to write this. My parents saw him before I did and when they came out my mum told me that it would really mean a lot to him if I would go and give him a hug. She told me not to cry again because he still looked really sick. Although he doesn’t seem better yet, I know he’s going to be and that’s a really amazing thing to think about.

                I just wanted to post this here because I thought it related to this story. When I was writing Fix a Heart, I changed the ending three times. I had planned on ending it a certain way before deciding that I loved happy endings too much. At the same time, I never really thought the end was realistic. I honestly thought that if this was a real story, Kaelin probably would have died. But then when something like this happens in real life it changes your thinking.

                I don’t think I ever really appreciated how important it is to be an organ donor. If someone out there had decided not to be an organ donor, my uncle might still be sick in the hospital, or worse. I just think it’s really incredible that this is possible. As morbid as it might be to think about, the thought that you have the potential to save someone’s life is absolutely amazing.

                This being said, I’m not writing this to preach to you about organ donation. I personally will most definitely be an organ donor but that decision depends on the individual. I really just want to let everyone know that you have so much more potential in the world than you even realize. Also, that amazing things actually do happen in real life.

                If you read this the whole way through, thank you. It seriously means so much to me that you took the time to listen to my story, or rant, or whatever you want to call this. I hope you were able to take something from it. Thank you so much, you’re amazing and I love you. Xxx