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In Episode 8, I’m sharing what happened in the early weeks after Ryder’s bilateral lung transplant, when what looked like steady healing suddenly turned into another fight for his new lungs. After discharge, we were learning our new baseline through clinic visits, spirometry, wound checks, medications, and routine surveillance bronchoscopies. On the outside, Ryder looked stable and was breathing well. But a routine 6-week bronchoscopy revealed acute cellular rejection along with signs concerning for antibody-mediated rejection.

In this episode, I walk through what that actually looked like for our family. The shock of hearing the biopsy results, the same-day hospital admission, the placement of a pheresis catheter, and the start of plasmapheresis treatment. I also share the details that matter for other pediatric lung transplant families: how rejection can happen even when a child seems fine, why surveillance matters so much, and what treatment can involve behind the scenes.

Ryder was hospitalized from August 1 through August 10, 2024, and underwent an intense rejection treatment course that included IV steroids, IVIG, plasmapheresis, and rituximab. I talk through those treatment days, the emotional weight of returning to inpatient life so soon after transplant, and what it means to realize that transplant is not the end of the fight, it is the beginning of protecting the gift you fought so hard to receive.

Most importantly, I share the hope in this chapter, too. After repeat bronchoscopy, Ryder’s rejection had resolved, his biopsy cleared, and his lung function began improving again. This episode is both our story and a practical look at what post-transplant rejection and recovery can really look like in pediatric lung transplant.

If you are a parent, caregiver, family member, or someone walking through this world, I hope this episode helps you feel more informed, less alone, and more prepared for the reality that healing after transplant can be both beautiful and fragile at the same time.

Between Breaths is a space for families walking through pediatric lung transplant. The fear, the strength, the grief, and the miracles.

This podcast shares personal experience and is not intended as medical advice.

If you found comfort here, follow the show and share it with someone who might need to hear it at 2am.

We’re in this together.

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After months of waiting in the unknown, the call finally comes.

In this episode of Between Breaths, Courtney takes you inside the moment every transplant family dreams of and fears at the same time, the moment the surgery is over.

From the consultation room to the ICU, this is the story of Ryder’s double lung transplant… and the first time his parents saw him with his new lungs.

You’ll hear what actually happens during a lung transplant. The race against ischemic time, the complexity of the surgery, and the reality of recovery in the first critical hours.

But more than that, this episode captures the raw, unfiltered emotion of what it feels like to finally exhale after living in survival mode for months.

The overwhelming gratitude.
The fear that doesn’t immediately disappear.
The moment everything changes.

This is where the “In-Between” ends… and the “Beyond” begins.

Take a deep breath for Ryder today.

Between Breaths is a space for families walking through pediatric lung transplant. The fear, the strength, the grief, and the miracles.

This podcast shares personal experience and is not intended as medical advice.

If you found comfort here, follow the show and share it with someone who might need to hear it at 2am.

We’re in this together.

Send us Fan Mail

What really happens when a family receives the call for a lung transplant?

In this episode of Between Breaths, Courtney shares the moment her son Ryder received donor lungs after months on the pediatric lung transplant waitlist.

At 7:35 AM on June 17th, 2024, my phone rang.
It was a blocked number.

Two minutes later, everything changed.

In this deeply personal episode of Between Breaths, I share the story of the moment we received the call that donor lungs had been found for my son, Ryder.

After months of living in the uncertainty of the transplant waitlist, managing oxygen, BiPAP support, infections, and the constant fear of becoming too sick for surgery, the call we had been preparing for finally arrived.

But pediatric transplant isn’t as simple as getting a call and rushing into surgery. This episode takes you behind the scenes of what actually happens between the call and the operating room.

You'll hear about:

• The emotional chaos of that morning
• The shock of realizing transplant was finally happening
• The final hours at home before heading to the hospital
• The reality of waiting during a 12+ hour lung transplant surgery
• The medical details of what Ryder’s body went through in the operating room
• And the moment we learned the surgery was successful

This episode also explains some of the realities transplant families face that most people never see, including the possibility of a “dry run,” the complexity of lung transplant surgery, and the incredible medical teams who make these miracles possible.

But most importantly, this episode honors the unimaginable gift that made Ryder’s new life possible.

Because every transplant begins with an act of generosity from a donor and their family during one of the hardest moments of their lives.

Somewhere out there is a family whose decision allowed my son to breathe again.

And for that, we will be forever grateful.

Next week, we’ll talk about what happened after surgery, the moment we walked into the Cardiovascular ICU and saw Ryder for the first time with his new lungs.

If this story touched you, please share this episode to help raise awareness for organ donation and pediatric lung transplants.

Between Breaths is a space for families walking through pediatric lung transplant. The fear, the strength, the grief, and the miracles.

This podcast shares personal experience and is not intended as medical advice.

If you found comfort here, follow the show and share it with someone who might need to hear it at 2am.

We’re in this together.