COURAGEOUS SPIRIT GUIDES WOMAN'S LIFE

I first met Ruthie Boxdorfer last year when she began singing with me in the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church choir. She, too, sings alto, so we sit side by side.

"What a cheerful, pleasant lady," I thought as we parted that first evening. Rehearsals continued week-to-week and our friendship grew. So did my appreciation of her perky personality.

I suppose I would never have known about Ruthie's health problems and her courageous battle to stay alive had I not heard her talking with another choir member, a nurse, about her liver transplant.

"You should tell your story, Ruthie," the friend said. "You could write a book."

I agreed, and urged Ruthie to put her amazing story in writing. Within a month, she had filled eight pages of notebook paper explaining her bouts with medical problems through the past four decades. The result is this story. Read it and know why Ruthie was labeled by her pharmacist as "a cat with nine lives."

Ruthie lives with her husband, Marvin, near Cape Girardeau. She is a member of Good Shepherd Ladies Guild, is active in L.W.M.L. projects and, of course, sings with the choir. She likes to crochet and is interested in crafts. She and Marvin share a love for camping and are looking forward to visiting camp sites in Iowa this summer.

What do a broken pelvis, a blood clot, an ileostomy, gall bladder operation and a liver transplant have in common? Answer: they are obstacles overcome by the petite body and courageous spirit of Ruthie Boxdorfer. Now, at the age of 53, Ruthie looks back on some forty years of serious health problems that began in the summer of 1956.

"I was ready to begin my sophomore year at Perryville High School when I suffered serious injuries in an automobile accident," she recalls. Ruthie spent seven weeks in a hospital recovering from a broken pelvis, three dislocated fingers and a large gouge in her throat near the jugular vein. She was finally released from the hospital, but after one week, had to return due to a blood clot in her leg.

"I was not able to begin school with my classmates that September, so my parents enrolled me, brought home my lesson plans, and I was able to keep up with my studies. By mid-October I was back in the classroom."

Over the next two years new problems involving ulcerative colitus arose for Ruthie. This condition was somewhat controlled by diet and medication, which enabled Ruthie to enter the work world at a YMCA in Ferguson. However, after remaining on medication for 16 years for the colitus condition, Ruthie had to undergo ileostomy surgery in July 1976.

An ileostomy provides an alternative way of eliminating waste from the body. It is generally assumed by many people that this type of surgery keeps a person from participating in normal activities. Not so, Ruthie affirms. "Before and after my ileostomy I was a single, full-time worker at the YMCA, played on a volleyball team, and was active in my church and community."

Three years after the surgery, Ruth Ann Louise Reisenbichler met her husband-to-be at a church activity. When the relationship became serious, Ruthie knew she had to tell Marvin about her ileostomy. The news did not change Marvin Boxdorfer's mind about his girl. He accepted Ruthie's health problems and they were married the following year, 1980, at Atonement Lutheran Church in Florissant.

"Marvin is still very supportive. He has helped me to never feel uneasy or ashamed of telling others about my condition," Ruthie says. "I thank God for an understanding and compassionate husband because, as the years have passed, more health problems have come my way.

"Eight years after our marriage, I became very ill while returning to our St. Louis home from a camping vacation in Tennessee. What I believed to be an attack of flu or possibly food poisoning left me nauseous, weak, and devoid of appetite. After two days of intense discomfort, I made an appointment with my doctor.

"Blood tests and a routine examination were performed in the office," Ruthie continued. "Then, to my surprise, he sent me immediately to a hospital. My gums were bleeding by then and I was much weaker. That evening I was given several units of blood."

More extensive tests followed to determine the cause of her internal hemorrhaging. The doctors finally stopped the bleeding and determined that Ruthie had serious problems with her liver. She had an elevated temperature and showed signs of jaundice. At the same time Ruthie's gall bladder was affected and doctors felt that surgery was needed to remove gall stones and stones in the common bile duct. Doctors advised that this would be a risky procedure.

"By this time I had been hospitalized for about a month. My hope of returning home for my October birthday never came about," Ruthie remembers. "But I tried very hard to keep my spirits up. I read 'Portals of Prayer' each day and, as I confided in a friend, I had never prayed so hard asking the Lord to help me and the doctors get through this ordeal. My pastor came the evening before surgery to give Marvin and me Holy Communion--how comforting that was for me.

"The surgery was touch-and-go. I was wheeled into the operating room on an ice bed and was turned over to a noted surgeon and, of course, to God's loving care."

Ruthie came through the surgery. However, in post-operative recuperation, additional tests revealed stones in her liver, an unusual condition. Several procedures were tried, the last being a type of shock treatment. After three attempts, the problem was remedied only slightly.

"I had no other choice now than to have a liver transplant," said Ruthie. "I remembered that prior to the gall bladder operation, I had discussed with my internist the possibility of a transplant, but I never really gave it serious thought.

"I did not think it would come to this," Ruthie admits. "The internist had reassured me that transplants of this kind were successful 75 percent of the time.

"The time had come for a decision, but not before doing some research," Ruthie remembers. "My husband and a cousin (a hospital nurse) went with me to visit area hospitals to select the right one for me."

Extensive tests, evaluations, and interviews were required before being placed on the transplant list. Those wintry days of 1989 called for all the patience Ruthie and Marvin could muster. Ruthie was granted a one-day leave to go home from the hospital for Christmas. Later in the month, after getting her temperature down to normal, she was taken off all medication and was allowed to return home to wait for a liver donor.

Preparation for a transplant is very comprehensive and exhausting. Ruthie underwent a complete checkup of all other organs. A blood type match with the prospective donor had to be established and a complete dental checkup was required.

Once she was placed on the transplant list, Ruthie was given a beeper. If a donor was located while she was away from home, the transplant coordinator could reach Ruthie by using the beeper. If she ventured outside beeper range, she would notify the coordinator telling her where she would be traveling. So the waiting began.

"I had been on the list for some three weeks when I received a call in the early evening. I was told there was a 50-50 chance of a donor in Colorado. However, I was advised that there was a possibility that a more critical person could get the organ. This did happen. So, I was back to waiting.

"This gave me even more time to think about my future. Many conflicting thoughts raced through my mind when that first call came," she recalls. "Do I really want to go through this surgery? This is a life and death decision.

"Of one thing I was certain: I was not alone. I was confident that the Lord would see me through this rocky path of my life. I knew that my family and friends were praying for me.

After five weeks of waiting, the crucial call came. Ruthie was returning from a visit to Ferguson and was getting out of the car when here beeper went off. This meant one thing --a prospective donor.

"Our son. Stephen, who was home at the time had also gotten a message instructing me to call my coordinator. I called in, and sure enough, they had a donor for me. I was ready now, as I fully realized my condition would not get any better. Without the transplant I could not go on living."

A bag of necessities was already packed and Ruthie was ready for the trip to St. Louis University Hospital. By 3:30 that afternoon, she was in the hospital being prepared for surgery.

Telephones were buzzing as family and friends learned that the day had arrived for Ruthie's transplant.

Surgery -- perhaps lasting 10 to 12 hours -- got underway at about 3 a.m., just twelve hours after Ruthie was admitted. The surgery went well, taking just eight hours. The surgeon who performed the transplant had gone personally to New Mexico to retrieve the organ.

"I now have the liver of a 16-year-old male from New Mexico," Ruthie said. "That is all I was told or will ever be told about my donor."

Ruthie was in ICU for three days; then was moved to a private room, remaining there for about three weeks. Post-operative instructions were precisely followed. Within a short period of time, Ruthie was doing exercises to boost her strength.

"I never experienced any rejection as some transplant patients do," said Ruthie, explaining that strong medication and steroids have been prescribed to ensure that the new organ adjusts to Ruthie's body.

The transplant was six years ago and, all things considered, Ruthie has come a long way, mainly because of her courageous spirit and unwavering Christian faith.

"A pharmacist in Clayton used to tell me, 'Ruthie, you're like a cat with nine lives," Ruthie said, chuckling.

"I say a prayer of thanks every day that God has given me a new lease on life. And yes, I do believe in miracles!"