Transplant Evaluation Starts Tomorrow

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The Day We Have Been Waiting For............................

Transplant Evaluation starts tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. This is a huge 3 day process.(Glad we don't have to pay for this. It costs over $20,000.) Fiona will see a variety of professionals: liver doctor, transplant surgeon, pulmonary doctor (this is an important one), cardiac doctor, social worker, nutritionist, psychiatrist and transplant coordinators. She will attend a class on what the transplant process entails and then a nutrition class. We don't know the order in which she sees everyone. Each person gets a different order and they usually evaluation about 20-30 people at a time. We will get that schedule tomorrow morning. After the evaluation it will take a few weeks for the team to review their findings, go over all the labs and medical information that was sent to them and then determine if she is eligible or not. They only accept patients who will be listed. If she will not be listed then they will not accept her.

If we decide to go the living donor route, then she will need to be referred by our HMO to San Francisco. UCLA does some living donors but not a lot. San Francisco does more. I am praying we don't have to go this route.

It is hard to say aloud we hope they accept her. She has been rejected so many times before. This isn't the first time we have been to UCLA. We have gone many times and each time they conclude she isn't "that sick" or like last time that she was a classic case of teenage non-compliance. She has worked hard to do what they wanted her to do and she has grown up a lot. She understands now what is happening and she sees why all those medications are so important. In fact, she now can't function at all without the medications. This time I hope it is different. She is having so many more health problems and is becoming less able to do much of anything. We also fear that if they wait too long to transplant her, her lung problems are going to get to a point they won't resolve themselves even after transplant OR they will disqualify her from ever having one. So this is an important evaluation.

I feel we have waited all summer, no this year, for this day to come. We as a family we are very anxious about this appointment. Even Lauren called yesterday to see what was going to happen. Of course this is high stakes for her. Bless her heart for even volunteering to be the living donor. But the stress has been great and we have all been trying to get through all the medical problems this family has. It is not just Fiona dealing with huge problems. So this week will determine the path we are now to walk. Hopefully we can walk the one that leads towards the light. I'm tired of dark tunnels.

Peggy


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