Before I get to my appointment let me share a few things...
First, for the past month I have called the Cleveland Clinic Coordinators and tried to schedule my follow up appointment. Every time I was told that they were waiting for Doctor Mountis to make a decision on what appointments she wanted me to have. So finally I received an appointment date but was told I would not be seeing Doctor Mountis, who is my transplant doctor and has been for years. I instead would be seeing Doctor Sterling, who Dewon and I did not like from the previous time we met him. So Dewon and I were very worried for what would come of this appointment.
So today we come over to the clinic. The lab was our first stop. I was so embarrassed, I am normally a pro at giving blood. This time however, I got very nauseated and a little faint. They also filled around 20 tubes of blood. We then grabbed an OJ and made our way to the Dental office. Everything was good there, I received my clearance and it was finally time for me to eat. After lunch we made our way to the transplant office. It didn't start out well considering we waited an hour for the doctor to come talk to us. When he came in he had no idea who I was or what the situation was. He asked for a minute to get a file off his desk and disappeared for another forty minutes. We were just about to walk out when he came back in. We talked for awhile and after a few tears and some answers we had been looking for we came to this arrangment.
I will be dual listed at both Cleveland Clinic and at a clinic in Dallas Texas called Baylor. The transplant doctor there is from Cleveland and was a doctor with their team before I came to the clinic. We are in the process of getting all the insurance and paperwork set up so that the family and I can go and be evaluated. This clinic at present time has a ten day transplant rate. That means every ten days they are transplanting a patient. At first I hesitant because they were transplanting so fast but they have a high survival rate as well so that helped me feel more at ease. Doctor Sterling is the director of the program at Cleveland and after months of asking and being discouraged he finally broke everything down for us. He feels it is too risky to do the injections or to clean my blood because I can get an infection or sick easily with my immune system being down through the process. So that is why they kept offering me it and then taking it away. He said that Cleveland has a small donor pool, meaning they do not have access to a lot of hearts. Baylor in Dallas has a huge donor pool and one of his patients and fellow co worker just got a heart and only waited a few days. He himself could not produce anything for his friend and sent him to the same clinic he is sending myself. I know very little about the new clinic but plan to try and research as much as I can before we go there. I just pray they will take my case. It makes me feel very hopeful again and a little scared at the same time. I know I need this transplant, but at the same time I am scared of the unknown. I know I want to feel better and start a family with Dewon so I will just pray about it and keep moving forward.
So we are home now and waiting, as always, to see what the next step is for us. Prayers, warm wishes and encouraging comments are more than welcome. I am a bit frazzled these days. Thanks again for reading. Have a great weekend!
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