Our first visit to the transplant center was rather interesting. I'm not sure exactly what I expected but it wasn't quite what happened. We got there fairly early in the morning, they had told us to prepare ourselves for a long day and to bring a snack. I didn't bring one into the center but we did snack a lot on the ride down.
First Bob had his vitals taken and a quick check over by a doctor. He seemed to think Bob was in pretty good shape, had not started dialysis yet, seemed to be able to do most of the things he wanted to do. The doctor's only concern was Bob's heart..he questioned him a lot about that...then he told him that he was going to order a number of tests to be done on his heart and he was to see a heart doctor before returning in December...he said he wanted to do this quickly which excited both of us.
Then Bob had blood drawn..20 vials of blood. This was followed by our 'class'...the class was to prepare us for what was to happen in the future...there was one other patient in the class...and her daughter was with her, the daughter's boyfriend (who was the donor) and the patient's councilor ..and the councilor's dog...I'm allergic to dogs but whatever. The woman had started on dialysis and was very thin, but she had her snack with her and she ate it during class..must have been soft food because she had no teeth..well, maybe a couple. Anyway, during the class the woman became upset a number of times...once because they told her she'd have to quit smoking...she said she had tried and couldn't..she asked if her donor smoking dope mattered, the donor got nervous... they said to see a dentist and make sure your teeth were good because that could be a source of infection...that is when I found out the other patient had a couple of teeth left, because she seemed sad about the thought of losing them..at some point they asked for a break go smoke, not sure what they smoked but there was just Bob, the councilor, the councilor's dog, and me left that didn't go smoke...
I was given a lot of material to read...and a lot to fill out...finally we returned home.
I became very impatient when we didn't hear from anyone about the tests Bob was suppose to have done. I got Bob to call and find out what the problem was..the problem was no one in Portland had ordered them...it was going to be like the kidney doctor's office where you have to keep right after them to get stuff done...anyway, the tests got ordered and Bob got them done...tonight we see the heart doctor with the results...but I've skipped ahead...so...I'll back up.
My role as the donor was to fill out paper...a lot of it...which I did...get two people to sign it..which I did...call and talk to one of the people at the center about being a donor, which I did..then mail it in...I did that...plus have the last 3 years of medical records sent to them...that involved more paper work but I got it done.
Weeks went by and I got a call from Roxanne at the transplant center, her only concern was about my high blood pressure. I reassured her that I didn't have high blood pressure but had 'white coat' blood pressure...which is when your pressure is only high when you go to the doctor and normal at home. She wanted me to get it checked out anyway...that meant going to Portland the next Monday and getting a device hooked up on me so they could monitor my pressure every hour for 24 hours...we drove down and I got hooked up...nervously, I tried to sleep through the night while that pressure cup on my arm pumped up every hour...Tuesday we went back...I had been taking my pressure at home for my prime doctor, Dr. Koffman so I decided to take those results down also....we got there and she removed the device and went to 'read' it...a little while later she returns to say that the machine had stopped working after five o'clock Monday which meant they had only three hearings...Roxanne then tried every machine they had on me and none worked...another nurse came and tried also..my pressure must have been flying by then...when they saw it was hopeless they called the kidney center at the hospital and had me go over there and get hooked up....home I went for another 24 hours. I think this was a blessing in disguise because by this time I was used to the machine..and so tired I had to sleep! The next day, Wednesday, we went back to Portland where they removed the machine..agreed my pressure was fine..and took 15 vials of blood...they'll call me in a couple of weeks with the blood test results...which is if I'm a match or not...then I'll start doing other testings to make sure my kidneys are healthy etc....tonight we have to have the heart doctor say Bob can have the transplant or he's facing the rest of his life on dialysis...
Please pretend that I'm posting this tomorrow (Monday)...I guess I'm having a problem knowing what day of the week it is...sigh..
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