We have liftoff!

Hello to all of you in Peter’s tribe! This is Emma writing, which means that as you are reading this, Pop is likely in surgery. However you send good vibes—if you pray, sing, light candles, tell off-color jokes, or raise a glass—please do it for Peter Roy tonight.

The call that lungs were available came in exactly 24 hours after Dad was listed! It’s of course amazing and fortunate that he got a donor match so quickly, but wow. When he first shared with Molly and me last December that a transplant was his only remaining treatment option, he set the goal to be in surgery by early summer 2020. So to have liftoff on April 22 is a great success.

Organ transplantation is amazing, but quite a process. Even when Dad got the call to go to the hospital, it was not a sure thing yet that the surgery would move forward. Donor lungs have to be evaluated by 2 different surgeons before being approved—about 30% of calls to come in for surgery end up being “dry runs” that get called off at the last minute because the lungs aren’t viable for whatever reason. So we had about 6 hours of waiting today between the initial call and the final word that transplant was a “go.” Here is Pop in his final hour before he got the good word:

There are many hilarious things Pop said during the waiting time:

“There no way a transplant can be worse that the Covid-19 test. They shove a cotton swab all the way to the back of your sinuses and rub it around forever.” (Please still get tested if you need to! :)

“It’s ok for you use this photo of me on the blog.”

“Thank God for Jeopardy.”

But Dad also reminded Molly and me that today is only possible because somewhere else in the world, there is another family who is grieving the loss of a loved one tonight. He asked us to “send up a prayer for them too.” Please do the same, and I’ll have more updates when Pop returns from outer space.

A thousand blessings to all of you who helped him get this day.