Two transplants later, couple longs for home

Phyllis Chretien laughs.

It's nice to hear her laugh, after all she has been through.

"No," I don't have a Southern accent.

Pause.

"Yet," she adds.

Phyllis and her husband Don of Springfield have been living in Jacksonville, Fla., since November 2007, almost 16 months.

The couple moved south because Don, 60, was on a liver transplant list at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, leaving behind their jobs, family, friends and 16 Acres home.

Don was suffering from end-stage liver disease caused by hepatitis C.

The hope was that he might be able to undergo a transplant within four months.

"But," his stepson, Dennis Wassung says. "It is all about supply and demand. It is about matching donors and blood types. It can get complicated. It can test your patience." So Don and Phyllis waited and waited, in a rented partially furnished first-floor apartment, a five-minute drive from the hospital.

Phyllis' sons, Dennis and Dan, chipped in to purchase their parents the baseball cable package so Don could watch his beloved Red Sox and make Massachusetts and home feel not that far away.

On the Monday before Thanksgiving 2008, a little less than a year after they moved south, Don received his liver transplant.

The operation was considered a success. Recovery was steady and sure - until it wasn't in early January of this year.

"It started to become very obvious Don was going to need another transplant," Dennis says. "Fast."

On Feb. 2, Don underwent his second liver transplant in 39 days.

Recovery has been slower this time, but progress is being made.

Don was released from the hospital on Feb. 25.

Most days he has to return to the Mayo Clinic for various tests. He still takes more than 20 prescription medicines. He can walk, but spends much of the day navigating the world in a wheelchair.

Phyllis, everybody says, has been nothing short of heroic in supporting her husband of 23 years.

"If you are ever in need of serious medical care, the Mayo Clinic is the place to be," Phyllis says. "They are thorough, gracious, compassionate. I'm talking the doctors, nurses, and, the house cleaning crew. And Jacksonville has been wonderful. The people have been very friendly, except when they are driving."

She laughs again.

The best soul medicine for both, though, was last week when Dennis brought his two sons, Parker and Cooper, to visit.

"We can't get enough of them," Phyllis says. "Don out of hospital, making progress, the kids here. It was good to get some good news."

Don worked as a salesman for a building supply company. Phyllis was a popular manicurist at Allure Nail Salon on Springfield's Dickinson Street. They were happily middle class. Texas Roadhouse people for their weekly treat.

Now they have bills and debts as high as the Alps.

"We never thought something like this could happen to us," Phyllis says. "No one ever does."

Dennis adds: "They aren't the kind of people who would ask for help. They are used to helping."

He and his brother have started a fund drive to help Don and Phyllis with COBRA medical insurance premiums, and prescription co-pays.

"Through the National Transplant Assistance Fund (NTAF) we've opened an account in Don's honor," Dennis says. "The NTAF is non-profit, tax-exempt organization, and donations are tax-deductible. If you'd like to help go to www.transplantfund.org and enter Chretien in the find a patient website box. Given the current economic climate, our family sincerely appreciates any and all contributions."

"People have been so nice," Phyllis says. "I miss Springfield. I miss my friends. My job. The fact my grandchildren are only a car ride away. The only thing I haven't missed has been two winters. But I'm looking forward to next year's. Everybody home and happy. Our life back."