The Listing Process Begins

Happy New Year

2020

Day 1 of the process for new lungs began today with a simple phone call to my lung transplant coordinator.

On December 21 and 22, I was in the hospital with a wheeze that would not stop. Apparently, it was a dangerous situation in my "fragile" state and I would be discharged once the wheeze was gone. The Respiratory Therapist had been giving me nebulizer treatments every four hours but his eyes lit up when we talked about having to banish my wheezing. "I'll get rid of it," he said.

And he did.

It started with a nebulizer treatment attached to an Aerobika followed by another treatment that caused me to cough up mucus. We were able to keep the samples for testing then he began another nebulizer treatment of a drug that would soothe and open everything up. It worked. No more wheezing.

It was when I was ready to be discharge that SHE arrived. The head of the Lung Transplant Clinic. She told me to call the clinic to arrange for Pulmonary Function Tests for my current numbers and they would also make an appointment.

The process is that the entire transplant team will sit around a table, discuss the patient, review the files then they assign a listing number for transplants. The same information goes to the State, who also assigns a number. Dr. S. and I agreed that my initial number would probably be a little high but I would be on the list waiting for the next downturn. Once listed, I will not be able to be more than an hour from the hospital.

I have so much more to learn and will document the entire process both the good and the not-so-good.

In other news: My mom has fallen five times since Mother's Day and fractured her pelvis in October. After surgery and rehab she has landed in Assisted Living and still is expecting to have her independent living situation again. It doesn't look good. She and I were in different hospitals and poor Michael had to be with her through the night then drive into the city for my discharge. After finding that the hospital mom was in did not address two major issues, Michael and I drove directly from my hospital to her assisted living to drive her to her hospital ER, where she spent two days.

The knight in shining armor was our son, William. He arrived December 23 ready to help. He was magnificent. Our first stop: Mom's hospital where we found that she was so much better and being discharge December 24. While I was with her being discharged, Michael and William made Christmas happen. They set the table, made the appetizers, baked and frosted the German Chocolate Cake and distributed the annual homemade food gifts to the neighbors.

Mom was with us on Christmas Day and we both were waited on. They took care of everything. It was the best Christmas present I ever received as I was still recovering from being in the hospital.

The next day, we got a call that mom had a 103 fever and pneumonia. Back we went to her hospital's ER, where they kept her the night while filling her with antibiotics. While there, William took charge. He kept her calm, told her stories about the venues he plays in Chicago and she began to share with him what they were like when she and my dad were dating. He sat, very interested and listened. While I was out of the room to eat, he dealt with the doctors. As he was leaving for a tour in Australia the next day and said goodbye to her in the hospital, he held her and told her how much he loved her. It made her feel fantastic, loved, and valued.

Clearly a Knight.