To Jill Nolen, life is about sports, the nearness of family, putting smiley faces on emails, and immersing herself within the language, culture and people of the deaf community. She lives life without a rear-view mirror -- no looking back – just the vista of a full life spread out before the 22-year-old college student.

Only now is she talking much about when it wasn’t so.  She had two liver transplants, both before she was 1 year old. The memory of that rocky passage on her road to a “normal life” is mercifully distant. 
For her parents, the memories of handing over a sickly infant daughter to surgeons remain.  Would that daughter, ever so tiny, see adulthood?  It was too hard to think about.

And when that first transplanted liver failed, their only hope rested on finding someone willing to step up with the gift of life one more time.

A parents’ side of transplants

She was born with jaundice which is not usual for newborns. But this persisted. Two months after Jill was born, (Mike’s) mother, who trained as a nurse, said we should have her checked.  We did. The doctor told us we should see a specialist.  We packed up that night…it was every parents’ nightmare.
Transplanting livers, especially in children, was real new.  Yet at six months, she received a transplant. We did not want to give her to the nurse for the operation, she was so tiny. We just had to give her over. Then the waiting game began.  Twelve hours of surgery.  We were wrung out. Jill opened her eyes and they were white.  They had always been jaundiced and yellow.

After the surgery, we had to remain close by the hospital.  Every day they would draw blood and do the numbers – liver function, everything under the sun.  The numbers go up and down. On Mother’s Day, we were preparing to leave (to go home to Oregon) and they said the numbers did not look good.  They wanted us to stay in the area… the liver was not going to work.

That summer was a waiting game.  Things were deteriorating slowly. She could not crawl, hardly sit up, do things that an infant her age should be able to do.  She was dinky, spindly legs and arms. Because of the fluid retention, her abdomen was extended…

A boy in Utah was riding his bike.  Seven years old and was killed.  A liver became available ….within a month (after her surgery), everything was looking good.  Instead of the up and downs and trials and tribulations like the first time when she was struggling to accept the liver, the second was just magic.  After a month, they told us we could go home.

It was like we did not believe them.  We packed quickly, trying to leave before they told us we had to stay.  We couldn't get out of the Bay Area fast enough; away from hospitals, blood test sticks and constant reminders of the year we had all endured. We reconnected with Jill's pediatrician in Bend, Oregon and the ensuing months were rocky enough with fevers and bouts of rejection that we felt that we wanted to be closer to the doctors and support team in SF. (Mike) applied for a medical hardship transfer with the Forest Service.  There were many offers but he accepted the one in North Fork about 3.5-4 hours out of San Francisco.

For awhile, everyone was on edge.  Then Jill went to elementary school. She was exposed to everything kids carry around. We just had one stint being back in the hospital after a whole bunch of years, when she got the chicken pox.  But she was out in three days.

It (the transplant) never really left our minds, but the longer she was healthy, the less it was in the forefront.  She was an active child, dance, gymnastics, team sports….lots of tumbling and flying through the air and landing bad, rolling her ankles.

The transplant games (an athletic competition in August 2010 in which Jill raised money in her tiny community to go with the Northern California team) brought what is meant to have a transplant to the forefront for Jill.

It’s simply amazing how the athletes were able to overcome various degrees of obstacles to be able compete. It was transforming for her to realize she is part of a larger family that embraces life to the fullest, taking nothing for granted; and meaningful to realize that there is so much work to be done to raise awareness in the general population about transplantation and organ donation.

How would I describe my daughter?  I guess what people often say about Jill is full of life. I’d say that is true today.

Jill Nolen’s story

I thought it was normal to get your blood drawn every month.  As I was growing up, things like that would pop up and be confusing.  Sometimes the topic (of the transplant) would come up.
Someone would say ‘Are you sure she should do that?’  but very seldom.  We never thought there was a reason to bring it up because I had grown up with this.

My transplant was sooo long ago.  I don’t remember a single thing. Heck, for all I know, if I didn’t have a scar, I wouldn’t have believed anything that my parents told me. 

Hence the reason I never thought about applying my ‘experience’ to any situation…I feel I don't know enough to really use that to my advantage...  As for my surgeries, I don’t remember what’s like to be foggy after being put out for so long, twice. So I grew up living a fairly normal life.

My understanding for how fortunate I am to be alive didn't really hit me until I was a junior in high school... when I surrounded myself with people that basically (I don't wanna say forced me to recognize my reality.. that's too strong..) cared about me and became my support team. They have given me their ears hearts and shoulders since then, and for that I will always be grateful.  Life continued on and I have made even more strong/lasting relationships and they too have joined 'the team’.

I am a senior at Fresno State. My career choice was changed after registering for the Deaf Culture class. It took less than a week for me to fall in love with it all.

After a day, an hour or even a minute of working with the deaf, I am filled with nothing but excitement. And I find myself smiling nonstop till the day comes to an end. That is how much I loving the idea of becoming an American Sign Language Interpreter.

I also teach at a gym, have been for 16 years. It’s an amazing break from homework. I enjoy the kids so much, but I also teach people in their 30s and 40s.  It’s fun to pass along what I know; teaching them how to balance and land and the way gymnastics for all ages will help you in all kinds of athletic activities.

"I live because I was given that gift by donor families who chose to have their son or daughter become a donor. I value every aspect of life. Big or small. Every night before closing my eyes I think back on the day and thank my donor and God for the life I am living.” :)


You DO have the power to Donate Life.

Make life happen …
California residents can check "YES! I want to be an organ and tissue donor" when they apply for or renew their driver's license or ID card through the California DMV. Or they can sign up online to be an organ and tissue donor with the Donate Life California Registry at http://www.donatelifecalifornia.org/ or its companion Spanish Web site, http://www.donevidacalifornia.org/.

Information about the impact of providing the "gift of life" to others through donor or tissue donation is at those web sites as well as at www.ctdn.org.