Earning the Privilege to Wait in Line

Yesterday I met with Dr. Phan, my Kaiser cardiologist. The echocardiogram I had on Friday was normal. Hooray! And the size of my heart has decreased to a normal size as well. He followed the lead of my nephrologist, Dr. Butman, and gave me the go-ahead for the kidney-pancreas transplant.

This morning I met with UCLA cardiologist Dr. Le, who approved me for the kidney only. He said that though my heart is much improved, there is still the chance of blood clots during such a complex and time-consuming surgery when you are working on a patient with congestive heart failure. He said it was too risky. He also said that a kidney-pancreas transplant is the most arduous surgery of all.

I asked Dr. Le if I should think of this process as negotiations, that it is better to ask for a kidney-pancreas transplant so that the transplant board can say no to that but then grant me the kidney. He said it doesn't work like that, that the transplant team had asked for his opinion and that his opinion was that I am cleared to go, so they'll accept his opinion. He said he would fight for me if there was any hesitancy. Oh, I was so happy, and so was Dr. Le. He said he had really been rooting for me, but Kaiser had dragged its feet about getting me the bypass surgery. This was news to me. He said that Kaiser is all about saving costs. But in the end the surgery was approved, and I am feeling so much better because of it.

So now that I have approval from Drs. Butman, Phan, and Le, the next step is the Kaiser transplant board's ruling on Friday. Then the final decision is made by the UCLA transplant team.

So though I will probably have to wait a month or so for an official letter of notification that I'm on the list, I absolutely know I'm already there.

It is so funny how happy I am to now have the privilege of standing in line. Can you believe that! Most people are annoyed and angered by waiting in line. I have been working my butt off now for 13 months to do just that!