--- In SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com, "Take a wild, friggin guess"
<a_change_of_plans_at_...> wrote:
>
> Well, so much for that. But I guess shit like this should be
> expected, so I'll just wait until the next call. :(
>
> I'd gotten a call from SLU at 10:15 last night, and was
admittedly
> quite shocked that they had found a compatible donor so fast (I've
> been on the transplant list since October 16. That's only about
three
> weeks!). I had to quickly get all my shit packed and prepped, and
> then make a few quick calls, say my goodbyes, and then get driven
to
> the hospital, which is about 250 miles away. Needless to say, we
did
> not obey the posted speed limits.
>
> Went into the emergency entrance and had to get the arm band and
> paperwork stuff taken care of. One tech brought me to a room where
> they took chest X-rays (I'm not sure what for, since they're
replacing
> the kidneys and pancreas, but whatever). Then another tech drew
what
> must've been half the fucking blood in my body, and set the vials
up
> for additional tissue and sample matching.
>
> They did a few other things, and had brought me to a room where I
> would assume they would start actually prepping me for surgery (I
was
> scheduled for an 8am surgery). Then the tech got a call, and the
> whole thing had to be called off.
>
> It seems the donor, while an excellent match for me, actually had
a
> problem with his/her pancreas. The doc who had removed the donor's
> pancreas had stated it was not any good, and the surgery would have
to
> be cancelled.
>
> So we drove all the way back home, where I promptly passed out
and
> finally got some much needed sleep. The last technician I spoke to
> said this kind of thing happens sometimes; you never know how the
> donor's organs are going to be until you can actually get them out
to
> look at them. I said it was no problem. There'll be another donor
> popping up sometime in the future, so I'll just have to wait.
>
> So there you go. I haven't read any messages yet, but I'm hoping
no
> one freaked out or anything. I just wanted to make a quick post
> before leaving so folks would know why I wasn't online or anything.
>
> So...I guess it's back to business as usual now. But I will make
> sure I have a suitcase already packed up and ready to go so that
next
> time, I won't have to run around like a maniac trying to get
> everything together. The whole thing caught me off-guard because I
> really did not expect a phone call that soon. I'd figured maybe
> sometime in March or something, but with this shit, I guess you
never
> know. The usual waiting time, according to the letter I received
> about the transplant listing, is 18-24 months. That was what I was
> expecting, not 3 weeks.
>
> Hopefully, we can all settle back into the casual grind again.
(I
> was a little ticked when I realized I wouldn't be able to draw the
> winning poll picture. Funny how technically unimportant stuff pops
up
> like that).
>
> Now I need to play catch-up with the group messages and help slow
> everything back down again...
>
> --JMH, still in one piece.
>
Damn that must royally suck. Seriously. I've had a friend who's
father had to get a heart transplant because his own heart was
getting only a small percentage of the blood through (somewhere
around 20%, I shit you not) and they had to go through the same sort
of stuff you had to go through.
First a false alarm for the very same reason as you, but after that
everything went fine. Scary part was that the heart condition had
been previoulsy undetected. If it hadn't been for a routine check-up,
he could have dropped dead at any given point in time.
Any way, cheers and I hope you get it sorted out.
Received on Wed Nov 07 2007 - 14:36:05 CST