Pediatric Transplant Week 2022

Hello, and welcome to the Get to Life podcast, where we have conversations about organ tissue and eye donation and transplantation. You can always find us at thegiftedlife.org. I'm Wry Steel. I'm Joey Boudreau.

And I'm Lisa Lorett West. Thanks again, Lisa, for joining us, sitting in our guest host seat once again. Thank you. I'm a licensed clinical social worker and happy to be here.

We're lucky to have you, and coming up on the episode today. In honor of Pediatric Transplant, we take a deeper dive into one baby boy's legacy. And then in the mental health section, we're going to talk about mindfulness, what it is, and how to accomplish that. All that and more right here at The Gifted Life.

Hang on. Here on the Get to Life podcast, we are so excited to welcome back Melissa McQueen. Hey, Melissa. Hello, and thank you for having me back on.

Yeah, she was on episode 158, talked about her baby and her work with transplant families. So we're going to talk about a conference coming up and why that's so important. But Melissa, we're adding a very special guest to you, your family, and to us here at The Gifted Life. Who is that?

I am so honored to have Sarah with us. She's the mom of Wyatt. And Wyatt is the one donor. And we're just so thankful for the controls and their family, their family that they had the grace to say, yes, when everything was falling apart in their life.

I can never wrap my head around it. It's just such an altruistic and amazing thing. And Sarah knows I have the utmost respect for her and love for her and her family. So on episode 158, you can hear about Dylan and all the wonderful milestones able to reach because of Wyatt.

Can you help us get to know Wyatt, Sarah? Yes, ma'am. Wyatt was healthy, happy, almost two. He had been to February 10th and accident happened in January.

But he was a full life energy. He was full throttle all the time. Never stopped. You know, one of those, you know, just he was all boy.

What he looked like. He was a longish brown hair, blue eyes, beautiful blue eyes. Kind of a chunky, stocky, with like a linebacker to me, you know, point out. I was thinking, you know, if you grew up, he'd be some type of, you know, stocky kid that, you know, like to play rough.

What was he into? He loved John Deere Tractors. He had a little tracker. He'd go around and he loved his pop-all and his grandparents all together and just enjoyed life.

I've never seen anybody on it. It's just like he soaked up every day like it was a miracle. And I don't want to say he knew what was going on. And you know, about his plan.

It just seemed like he, every day he lived full of life, you know, he, he had febrile seizures when he was started about a year old. And then he had a lot of ear infections and stuff. But other than that, he was a perfectly normal, healthy kid that loved to eat. And what he ate your food too.

Didn't matter who it was, he'd go up and have a try with you. So why don't you eat your food too? Yes, exactly. You better be careful or anything.

It didn't matter what it was. Did he like to be outdoors or? Yes, he loved to be outside. He would prefer to be outside versus inside.

And I think that, you know, the day of accident, he was, you know, of course, outside. And he just had a run of the place and just, you know, in and out, play football. He loved horses. You know, anything that our family was into, which was, you know, you're up around team roping and girl racing and calf roping and all that kind of stuff down here.

So he was used to it. And he just loved it. He loved being outside and what the temperature was. He wanted to be out there.

I got cowboy boots. I picked your cowboy boots. James. Yes.

And they looked just like his daddy's. He, um, funny story. We went down to Austin, Texas to meet a friend. And there's a branch on the way down there called Law of Orange that time.

They had a, um, boot store, like a Western store and we stopped in and thought, Oh, you know, we need to be pair of boots. He's growing. So he went right in there. I put the pair of boots.

He wanted it to the lady. Oh, and they were the exact same as the husband. Oh, and they were just amazing ladies and still level. He didn't give a cap and everything.

Just it was, it was a special moment for our family, a little road trip that we didn't want him to be going on, but we took and he picked out his boots and that's what he worked. Oh, great memories. Great story. Oh, you mentioned that he's a little miracle.

You know, it's, it's kind of read a little bit of a back story. I've got a similar type backstory of going through the process of fertility and things. So I can imagine how spoiled he must have been throughout all this, right? Yes.

Yes. Very spooled and that's even transfer. We don't have a little bit. It's, you know, when you have one child, it's like it, you know, it's like, okay, you work that job, you're tracking around.

Let's get that. You know, you want, you know, whatever you want. And that's, you know, kind of is like a pitfall on a parent. But on the other hand, you know, we, for example, we were going to getting his last Christmas.

We weren't going to buy this little John your tractor for him. You're like, you know what? We had a little bit of extra and we're like, you know, well, let's just go ahead and get it. And we did.

And it was absolutely the best thing we ever did. We had gone to Colorado, Silverick Christmas. And it was so cold, of course, and snow and we went, my husband's family is up there and she's a educator and coaches at Creed in Creek, Colorado. And we took him to the gym to drive it around because we couldn't drive it outside.

And he would just drive it in circles. And these girls would come up and ask to drive it, drive it with him. He was like, no, not sharing this one. No, this is my rod.

He would sit at living room. He'd sit on it falsely. It was everything to me. It was funny.

Were you guys knowledgeable about donation? Did you talk about donation as a family before the accident? You know, no, ma'am, we did not. We, and it's a thing, I was thinking about that earlier.

And I think it's, you know, with adults, it's something that we consider before it, you know, it even happens because I don't want to say that we're expected to not live. That sounds bad, but, you know, there's always a possibility. And with that possibility, you know, you need to make that choice and it's better for you to make it rather than your family, you know, because they would, you know, they know your wishes. But yeah, it was something that we never thought about until it happened, until we were faced with that decision to make.

Can you walk us through that day and only share what you're comfortable sharing? Yes, ma'am. We, it was a Sunday afternoon and I'd done a grocery store and my husband was at home with Wyatt and my brother and they were building a wheelhouse. So where we lived, it was on 15 acres.

And the front property was my husband's uncle and we shared a joint driveway on one side and there was a barn with horses between us and we walked that road every day to visit family and come back up and it was just a normal, everyday thing. Well, as my husband and my brother were building a wheelhouse, why did they like dump for an hour? And you know, he was had chicken nuggets and stuff inside and they left the door open because it was January and Texas and it was like, it's like, 80 degrees, you know. So he was running inside, grabbing chicken, I got him to come back outside and take his own hammering.

I wasn't going to know him and he would know that well, knowing with his plastic hammering and go back in every night and go back in every night and go back in every night because it was food. And then from what my husband says is it's, they started looking for him and I got him and so the first thing he did was went to our barn, which was like 50 feet from our house, you know, 75 feet and turn the island and come finding. And then as he turned to come back down the driveway, which he driveways about 250 yards long. You're screaming down at the other barn.

And there was a husband's uncles and uncle's wife, sorry, was an equendentist. And he had about five horses tied up along the fence line and the barn and the gate had been left open and Wyatt had wandered down there. And that split up second and walked between the first horse. It was tied up in the fence and speak to horse for source in the first horse, basically pauling on top of the head, you know, crack in the skull, a lot of the apple egg and everybody was there, did CPR section, kept it going as much as they could.

And then they called me in sitting accident and I was like, oh, what did you do to break his You don't think a little boy, you know, what did he do stitches where we go in here? And the voice and other line told me no he's leaning through his mouth in his ears and I was in law enforcement. So at that point I was like, oh God. So I was already on my way home and Florida and got home and saw him laying there and went up to him and his team and told him a lot of demons.

The MS worker told me that we needed to cook and so we went to cooks and we're saying that is there they're fleeing there. We got there it all starts getting kind of cloudy, you know, when you're going through something like this, your adrenaline kicks in and you don't know, you know, the time frame is kind of shady for me. I know that's crazy but to this day I don't try to focus on the time frame. So it was about 24 or 48 hours of course and the first brain to study was very minimal function, you know, that type of stuff.

And at that time, you know, all your family could be at the hospital so we had a ring full of family and our family was very active in the decisions we made for support. And we went on another, I think it was another 12 hours and I did another study and was inclusive that there was no brain function and that basically if why it was just live, he would live with a betray and bin it and you know, G button and all that stuff and would never be a normal little boy ever again. He would never be able to run a play and do the stuff that he was put on the start to do. And so at that time, the option of life gift was presented to us by a doctor and it's kind of, you know, one of those things that they had mentioned it before but it wasn't like, you know, this is where we're going now.

And my husband and I had the family had gone and was in another room and he and I were talking and I was like, you know, I really feel strongly about this. I've never thought about it before. It's not something that you want to think about as having a child, you know, you never want to lose your child. And I was like, the only thing that keeps popping up in my head is if the shoe was on the other foot, if I was sitting like the McQuin's position and all I was waiting on was something like this, I gift, say my baby.

What, you know, I would be hoping and praying that some of them get in their heart that they can make this decision. You know, it was a very tough and very hard decision and but it was a decision that I felt in my heart that I, it was one that I want to say, helping the process. And it was one that I felt like why it's passing was not, I don't know if this is the right word to use in vain or, you know, something that was so tragic and so bad, we could help somebody else in that situation. And that's what we looked at and I just kept saying to myself, you know, if I was in that position, I would pray that somebody would come along and my husband or not prayed about it.

And we decided that that was the best choice for he and I. And so we'd go back in with a doctor and family and he presented it to the family. And of course, our family, you know, thought we were crazy a little bit just because it's the decision, you know, when nobody can bad them making that decision at that point. And we told them what we were going to do.

And there was some, you know, question about, you know, the doctor's like, the actually was my dad was like, have you ever been wrong? Talked into the doctor. The doctor's like, I've never been more right about a situation. And, you know, and at that point we decided that, you know, we were going to do life gift and everything was donated, except as I and it took us about the years, 18 hours to come off all the drips and everything and getting stabilized to where he could be to go back to life.

Yes, I guess we're correct word to say at that point. So it was really a choice that I think a lot of people are scared to make as parents when I'm not doing what I work in the picture right now where we lost why that and we deal with it a lot. And I think it's hard for parents to make that decision. But I think if they could step back in that moment and realize how much good could come from it and that they have a choice to help somebody else and to realize that if the roles were reversed out of something so tragic becomes something so amazing, like Dylan and the McQueen's, we've been so blessed to meet them and to watch him grow up.

And that was one of the hardest things was, I mean, you know, after you do life gift, most of contacting us exactly in a year through life gift and the bad part about it, we weren't really ready to talk. No, no, that's crazy. But it's not crazy. That's perfectly okay.

And I think that what we were so afraid of is that what if something happened, you know, what if he, you know, something was going on with him and the heartbreak for them and us, I know more for them, but we didn't want to see that heartbreak. We wanted everything to just be okay. So we waited longer than we should have. And finally got to the point where because I read the letter and I told my husband, I have a letter, I said, when you're ready to read it, you let me know.

So I kept it in the drawer. And it actually took, I think, what it went in eight years and was something like that. Yes, exactly. And it's crazy because when I reached out, it was like March donation month to Lafayette to go through them to try to get in touch with Melissa.

I waited a month and didn't hear anything. And then I called him back and I posted really busy donations and then I waited another month and didn't hear anything. And then we kind of let it go for a month or two when we were sitting there in August. I was like, was that I really would like to, you know, I want to read the letter and I want to know about the family.

It's okay. So I went down the letter and had a little picture of Dylan in it and still had no contact with the Lafayette because it kind of was then their family moved back to Arizona. So when all the transfer everything, transfer doctors and all that stuff, things kind of got shoveled around and we lost them. So I did some Facebook stuff.

Internet stuff. But I typed in one day, I was just stopped in, heart recipients Arizona. And I can't remember. I think it was a no-splacement.

So was it a no-s or whatever page it was, it had the picture of Dylan that she'd sent us. You remember what that was, Melissa? It was, it was a children's organ transplant at the Association. So me being detected by half that in, his name came up with the same picture she sent us.

So I contacted her through Facebook on a Saturday. And I said, I know you're going to think I'm really crazy and this is so weird and out of place for us to do anything like this. But by chance, are you the family received our son's art? And she answered back and was like, I believe she said, I think we are and we need to go through Lafayette at the all in a polite way.

Just going to do this the right way of the course. Yeah, it was like a course. I said, I just have been trying to get a hold of y'all and it hadn't worked out. And then talking to Lafayette again, they were like, yeah, they transferred from children's Dallas to Arizona and some things got crossed and we kind of lost them.

So I don't think people expect that when you have a transfer or a transplant like that. You know, everything seemed to go so well with him. They were gone and dream months and back to Arizona, trying to start their life back up in a new life, a new normal for him. So that's kind of the long short of it.

I'm sorry that took so long. That's okay. You just did such a beautiful job at the chills here. I went through it with you.

Yeah. It was an amazing time. I mean, God really has blessed us in our lives. And we thank you every day and the strength to make that decision on that day.

I've never regretted it. You talked about early on in the conversation, how time frames and everything was like a fog, right? But you clearly had such strength, compassion, clarity to have to make those tough decisions and knowing that if you were on that end, what would you want the other family to say? And that's definitely a kudos to the character that you are and your family is.

And of course, from our standpoint, we encourage as often as we can for donor families and recipients to meet because of what we see it brings to them. Of course, we love being a part of that too, right? Because it's from our perspective, it's one of the most amazing things that we can ever be a part of. So I'll start by saying there's no wrong way for you guys to meet the fact that you guys did it.

Look, it's supposed to be on your timeline. There's no life gift or lopa or anyone else that has any real say in what time frames that you guys should be meeting. It's whenever it's right for you, both of you and that timeframe that eight years and you guys are ready, are you ready, Sarah, at that point? That's what it was meant to be.

And I'm curious to know, so tell us, walk us through that meeting because it's such, like I said, it gives me the chills thinking about you guys meeting. Tell us a little bit about that meeting and how that went. Melissa, do you want to start with this one? I will.

I know it was great. We got the call from Sarah, like she said, and I'll just take the baton from there. We were finishing up at the Transplant Games in Utah in Salt Lake in 2018. And that's when we got the call.

I was super excited. A few months later, we had gotten a call that Children's Medical Center in Dallas was having their 30th anniversary. I was going to have a reunion of some of the clinicians that had worked there and had left other centers. They were coming back.

And I said, oh my gosh, I get to go back. Dallas, I'm like, wouldn't it be neat to bring Dylan and to meet Sarah and boy and their family and to just make that connection, that really meaningful connection. So I went to my husband and I said, this is what I want for my birthday. I need two blankets.

And he said, okay, you got it. So he bought a bagel and he got us a room out there. And we went and we got pictures of him with his ICE universe and his surgeon and his husband, our coordinator and his whole team. And it was amazing.

And right before that, we got to meet with Sarah. And we have the most lovely time. I met with her first because we wanted to meet mom to mom first. And I have to say, I'm kind of biased.

I think we did it the right way. So we met first and then a couple of days later, after the big, pretty young children's, we decided to have a family's meet. So we went there's a nice big Christmas thing. They do have a dealer with a big ice, you know, celebration in Dallas.

And so we went down there and took the kids and her daughter and Dylan got to meet. And we brought a bill to bear with a recording of Dylan and Wyatt's heart and so that we could give it to her daughter and just share that with them. And she gave me the most beautiful necklace, which I wear to every single volunteer event that I go to that had anything to do with transplant stuff. And I'm on the board of directors for, you know, then I wear it to every meeting because it's my reminder of my own hair.

It's like, yeah, sorry, that was one to do. That's okay. I have literally, I have goosebumps. And for as long as I've been doing this, and this is Lisa, by the way, you think you would stop getting amazed at the strength of the human spirit, but it just is amazing to see families, especially of children make those decisions in such difficult times.

It just reminds you, there's still some good left in this world. That's right. And then Sarah to know that Melissa is part of this great world where she's trying to make it even better for folks who walked their walk. And so in Wyatt's honor, she's helping and holding the family's hands that are walking through that.

Like what a legacy for Wyatt. Melissa, we want to talk about transplant families and this pediatric conference that's coming up. We are so fortunate. And again, while it's doing amazing work through both me and Sarah, just the things that we've been able to accomplish.

I started transplant families again, that was on a previous episode. But one of the amazing things that we get to do is have a conference at the end of National Pediatric Transplant Week, which marks the end of Donate Life Month, which is versus April. So it's the last week of April. And during those three days of the Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 28 through 30th, we have a conference for caregivers and recipients and the whole family.

So it's informational and it gives families a chance to connect to hear different presentations and questions they may be having or and to connect and just learn about things that you don't have time to ask in a regular appointment. Those appointments go by pretty quick. The clinic appointments do and these are things you don't get to ask about. So this is kind of a form for that.

We like to celebrate the community, the recipient community, the donor community, and all of those who support us, the medical staff, and we're just all a great, a real big family. So this year, we are planning already and we have such exciting sessions coming up. We're highlighting quality improvement organizations for hearts, liver, and kidney. And it's just been amazing what the things that we're talking about that are potentially going to be topics.

Everything from stem cells, the transplantations to like, so rejection, to, you know, fight effects of medicines and what that means. And then after all of that, the next day, we have a psychosocial day and we talk about how this affects the family, that whole journey of, you know, being in the hospital long term, you know, what that looks like for the first year afterwards. We're lucky enough to have Michael Pitcher come to speak. You might know him.

He's his twinest Ashton Kutcher and he's a heart transpiper. So be it himself. Yeah, and he was actually on the gifted life to that episode 103. If you want to listen back and Melissa, I know you talked about yours.

Here's episode 158. So great material, great learning tools for all of us too. Thank you so much. So that's that.

And then the last week of the kids day. So we're just fortunate to have just the entire family involved. I'll break up one more thing about this. We were so excited last year and hope for it again this year.

National Pediatric Transplant Week was kind of a brainchild of myself and Joseph was with me on the previous episode that was just mentioned, along with Donate Life. We talked to leadership there. We got it instantiated like four years ago, and last year it was included on the President's proclamation for April. So such an amazing time to again celebrate the Committee acts like, you know, the controls, you know, like being there, telling her story, letting parents know she's she's there with them, you know, when they're in their worst hours, she knows and has that empathy that I don't think anyone else could have.

And what a blessing to have Sarah in your corner when you're in the hospital like that. I can't imagine anything better. And I will continue to serve and why it's on her. And I'm just honored to do so.

Pediatric Transplant Conference is scheduled for April 28th through the 30th. So coming up, and you can learn more is at TransplantFamilies.org. Melissa, correct. So TransplantFamilies.org, if you'd like more information.

So Sarah, were you familiar with her work and your thoughts on why it's legacy? I had not been until, of course, meeting them and everything. And it is, I share her story with nearly every nurse I meet in her unit. And even actually the main reason I came back and went to nursing school and everything is because of the situation I've gone through, like why I chose to come back to the PICU where we were at.

And actually our nurse that we had had that night was actually worked with me, still worked with me. But it, they, the Queens are such amazing people. And Melissa is a godsend. And she does so much for transplants and all of the stuff that they're going through.

It amazes me how she has the strength to do what she does. Because her going through what she went through is just as bad as going through what I went through. I feel like because, you know, they, at eight months, they, you know, until he was eight months old, they had hospital visits. They didn't know what was going to happen or how things were going to play out or anything like that.

And that's, that's such a roller coaster of emotions and everything for a family to go through that she, her strength. I don't know that she realizes how strong she is. Thank you so much. I feel like I'm way about you.

We sit in awe of both of you. Sarah, thanks for sharing your story. Thanks for sharing Wyatt, not only with Dylan, but with all of us as well. We're all learning.

We say this as a, this podcast is a tool to help others and you just did a beautiful job of explaining the gift of life. Thank you. Melissa, keep up the good work. We'll be watching what comes out of the Transplant Conference.

And thanks for all you do. Thank you for all you do and spreading the good work. Thank you for having us. Thanks ladies for teaming up here on the gift of life.

Here on the gift of life, we take a moment for mental health. Yeah, Lisa, see something about mindfulness. Right now. Yes.

Mindfulness, something that we hear a lot of these days. It's one of those new pop things, I suppose, but actually mindfulness is actually over 2,500 years old. The concept of mindfulness started back about two and a half thousand years ago from the Buddhist, although many other religions have encouraged mindfulness in different forms. So sometimes when we start talking about mindfulness, it is just becoming aware of what is happening in the here and now.

And just simply being in a state of act and open attention to what's presently happening. Some say when you trying to describe it, it's easier to say what it's not rather than what it is. So it's not about making mistakes because of carelessness or inattention. It's not about using drugs or alcohol for distraction to ease negative feelings.

It's not about failing to notice your feelings of discomfort stress. It's not about being overly preoccupied about the future plans. It's not about getting lost in your own thoughts and feelings. But it really is just more about being aware and taking in what is actually happening at the moment.

Can I be mindful and have a simple wine? Well, yes. I guess you can't. Oh, you have a proof of it.

Might not be the healthiest way, but you can do it, I guess. It's all about hard health right here. It's a system. Okay.

Right. Right. Tell myself at least. And all you need to do though is start with an open mind and perhaps 10 to 15 minutes a day.

So we're going to talk about something called mindful moments, some things you can do throughout the day to help learn how to be more mindful and more intentional with your actions. You can make these things be regular activities every day. So when you wake up in the morning, for example, instead of just hopping out of bed and get going, just a four time. So when you do that, you take a minute, a few minutes just to notice how you feel when you wake up.

Okay. That's that's our snooze between one and two snooze. Right. So you just really just take a minute and what's the sensations?

What are your thoughts and feelings? Not judging. It's not about judging whether it's good or bad. Just being aware of how you feel when you wake up, the sheets on your body, you know, how you feel mentally and emotionally, physically.

What do you smell? What do you have any taste? Another thing is when you go to have a meal or a snack, set it set aside some time to just look at what you're eating. We try to choose a variety of healthy, nutritious foods.

But as you eat, notice the taste and smell of your food. I find oftentimes don't do this. You know, you're busy throughout the day. You just eat and just chew it and swallow it.

I don't even sit and eat. I stand stand at my countertop. Sometimes that happens. It's almost every time I eat, I just hurry, I get my stuff done eating while I'm taking care of the meals.

So I challenge you, Joey, to start being a little mindful with your meals. Sit. Look at your food, what colors. And then chew slowly and just take some pleasure and experience in it.

You know, we say we love food and especially here in South Louisiana. So everything involves around food. But and we, you know what, we're chatting and talking and maybe having that sip of wine. So just take some time to really just notice the smell of your food, how it looks and how it tastes.

You know, the friend always points out how fast I eat. She said, I still have a whole meal here. I was like, oh, I mean, business. I just noticed that as we had our lunch earlier for Joey right now.

Yeah. And then pay attention. When you meet somebody, I'm terrible about remembering people's names. I get introduced to people and I remember people's faces from way back, but oh, please don't hold me to their name because I'm terrible about that.

But pay attention. Listen to what these people are saying and then repeat their name in your head. Aim to develop a habit of understanding others and delaying your judgments and criticism about them. So just just take in the conversation without trying to make any conclusions to it.

Take breaks in the middle of the day. Take a walk to stretch and observe how your body feels, what your energy level like. So you just take a little 10 minute walk and then just be present and mindful of the walk. You know, your feet hitting the pavement are those kinds of things.

So just be mindful and just live in intentional. Notice five things around you when you take a break. You don't even have to get up. But instead of getting caught up in your own thoughts and feelings, pause for a moment.

Notice five things you can see. Just look around and I see this and just be in that. Listen, what are five things can you hear? What are five things you're hearing at that moment?

And then it or their smells or there are five different things you can smell. But do the five things, five feelings in your body, you know, your hands sitting on the table or whatever it might be. Notice five things. And then one other thing is you can stop in the middle of the day and take some deep breaths throughout the day, pause and take those moments for those 10 slow deep breaths.

And while you're doing that focus on your actual breathing, feel the air going into your lungs. Breathe using your diaphragm. And so it's really just all about being aware of your actions and being conscious of what's going around you without, though, again, getting caught up in all the thoughts. I need to do more.

It's so fast paced. And so you're right to take time to do that. But if you have a free minimum, check my working mill over here while I'm doing this. And I'll knock these two tasks out.

And I tell you, when you practice these things, it really does become a really natural habit. Several years ago, I would do teach to cardiac patients progressive meditation, where you start with your toes. And it's a 20-ish minute exercise where you tense and then release, tense and release all the body parts, starting out the toes all the way up. And I would find my, and I did it very often because I taught these patients.

And I would find myself when I would be just feel like I was running from one department to the next. I would literally just stop in the hallway, get to the side. And I would just like squeeze my fist and then release them. And then the whole relaxation since the sensation of the body went through with just that one little habit because your mind and body is trained to those things.

So it takes practice. Mindfulness is going to reduce your stress along with reducing anxiety and depression. It's going to decrease your worry. You're not going to get caught up in your feelings and worry.

It's going to improve your concentration and your mental clarity. You'll be able to focus more when you're doing things if you're taking these moments of mindfulness. It can decrease emotional reactivity. So I know in a previous episode, we talked about stopping and thinking before you speak, these kinds of things will help with that as well.

It increases your relationship satisfaction. And it just begins to enhance your self insight. So even though we hear a lot about mindfulness these days, let's remember it is old and it's continued to be something that's very solid and helpful for us. And so I'm going to challenge you and encourage you to try to begin some of these little practices.

Again, they take very few minutes of your day and have many wonderful benefits. I'm going to try to do that, especially for sitting on the eat. It's like really fast. So you're doing two tasks while I'm doing it.

That's right, Laura. You pick one thing and you start with that. And then maybe after I'm less of doing that, you add another thing. I'll get overwhelmed if we add too many of them.

Yeah. One, it's a little step at a time and then don't ever be too hard on yourself if you mess up one day and you do eat too fast through your lunch. Know that you have supper to do that too. All right.

Good tips. You have a topic you want us to cover. All you have to do is email us info at thegiftedlife.org. In our question and answer segment today, are organs harder to match or find for children?

Joe? So a couple of things. First, it is obviously a little more challenging to have a right match for kids, especially from a size perspective. Size makes an impact whether you're a kid or an adult.

But as we all know, kids have so many different sizes, right? And so that adds a layer. Of course, more adults pass away as we all know. So there's a lot more opportunity for getting a transplant as an adult.

But to combat that, so you know, policy, the way we match organs is different for pediatrics. It's different for kids. So it's a lot broader sharing off the bat. Like from the jump, at the beginning, the circles are much larger when we're allocating a heart, for instance, our lungs or liver.

Instead of, so adults, you'll see within 250 or 500 nautical miles, most of our adult organs are placed. But that's not always the same thing with kids. It's usually 500 to 1,000. And that's because multiple things, there's not as many pediatric transplant centers to begin with.

But it allows us to be able to share outside of that close geographical area that we're in. So I think it is more of a challenge. But I think the allocation differences that allow for broader sharing that way, if the sickest but best matches in Washington state, you'll see that a lot more often with kids, even if it's a heart or lungs, especially because they're good organs. You know, we're not talking about some marginal organs to begin with.

So they can go a little further out from a geographical standpoint. Great question. Yes. And if you have a question, give us a call 5046483477.

In every episode of the Give the Life we Honor a Hero. Today's Hero is Nicholas Lewis. And we learn about Nicholas from his family. They actually created a quilt square and these special touches y'all.

So amazing. All these special touches went into making a special memorial for him. You can see it at lopa.org slash quilts. It was actually on our very first quilt.

So I'll share with you a little bit of what his family shared with us. This square was made a memory of Nicholas from those closest to him, whom we left behind. The central butterfly fabric is for Ashley, his girlfriend. The other four fabric strips are for his three brothers and sister, Tim, David, Jacob, and Emily.

The buttons represent his parents, Lisa and Jack. The fish represents his aunt Diane, his godmother, whose earring it once was, and the water activities he loved. He could identify any fish and was the best scuba diving buddy. The red button represents how much we love him.

The cross-stitch strip comes from one of his baby outfits. We are happy to have been able to share the gift of life through lopa, but our loss of Nicholas still leaves us with overwhelming sadness. We keep his love in our hearts and pray that someday we'll hug him again. May he rest in peace.

Now let's pause and say thank you to Nicholas for the gift of life. And that is going to do it for episode 185 of the gifted life. Thanks for listening guys. Remember you can always register as an organ tissue and eye donor anytime.

Register me.org. Yes, huge thank you to Melissa McQueen and Sarah Catrell for coming on. Of course, Sarah for sharing Wyatt. What a beautiful boy.

Beautiful life. It's a short life, but it's amazing. Everything she said, you can just feel it and see him as she's describing. She's such a great job.

Yeah, and the legacy that Wyatt left, not only for Dylan, but for also the inspiration that it provided for Melissa McQueen to become one of the co-founders of Transplant Families and help others to go through those pediatric transplant lives, all the challenges that they have to go through to help those better than what they may have had if they weren't there. So, Transplant Families.org is that website, a great group and can't wait to see what they've got on the docket next. Yeah, we appreciate them sharing our story with us. Beautiful story.

Let me speak. The best place to find us guys on our website, thegiftedlife.org. Tell your friends. So listen here and find links to listen on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you listen to podcast.

And if you listen on Apple Podcast, please give us a five-store rating because it really helps others find the podcast. If you're on social media, we know you are. Like our page on Facebook, please get to live podcasts. You can also follow us on both Twitter and Instagram at Gifted Life Pod.

Thanks for listening. Remember to spread the word about the gifted life guys, and we hope that you go out and do something you wouldn't normally do to help us make life happen. Have a good one. This is a production of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, or LOPA.

The Gifted Life is hosted by Lori Steele and Joey Boudreau. Our executive producer is Kirsten Heins. Producer is Shalom Caraway. Intern is Rebecca Rannem, and we are recorded, engineered, and mixed in our Covington, Louisiana Studio by Troy Perez.