Time sure is moving fast these days. It's already Nov.6th! A few things to report: Liver ultrasound complete, went for the psychological evaluation today(go back for report on weds the 14th), and actually have a tentative date for surgery(Dec. 10th). Pretty productive if you ask me:-) Since so much has happened in the last four days I'll talk a little bit about each of these milestones.
Liver Ultrasound: Friday Nov. 2nd I arrived at the hospital around 3:30pm went straight to The radiology department. The wait was not very long, they are pretty fast there. Something I've been very impressed with during this whole process. I think the longest waiting time that I have waited was maybe 5 minutes. I'm trying to think if there was any longer waiting periods and I just can't think of any. For a hospital, this is exceptional.
The door opens and a gentleman calls my name....we go back to the ultrasound room. He asks me to verify my date of birth(another recent popular question) and my full name. He then introduces himself to me and proceeds with the ultrasound. Of course I was snapping pictures the whole time:-) even got a video, although I didn't mean too, it's pretty cool! Before long I was on my way.. Quick and painless!
On Monday, the 5th I called Susan(transplant coordinator) to fill her in on the progress of everything. Susan is such a genuine and nice lady. While we were on the phone we discussed the next steps. Which are getting a report from Dr.Wise and letting the Kidney doctors look over both the liver doctors findings and the psychological results. I decided to try and pin point a date for my surgery. I was thinking sometime around the week of Christmas, but the date we came up with was Dec 10th then more than likely I could return to work on Dec 28th. The other option was Dec 31st.... Either would work but the 10th works best:-) she informed me that once all of those reports are through the only thing left was to meet with kidney doctor and catscan the kidneys...wahoooo!!!
Dr. Wise... She was very nice as well. We sat and chatted for about an hour. We went over all of my past,future and everywhere in between. I also took one of those true/false personality test. Those are kinda different because one part of the question you would think true... But the second part false.. So you have to answer open minded. I understand why they check your psychological conditions for this kind of surgery. It's a very serious surgery. It is very important that you understand the risks that go along with this surgery(any surgery) before just jumping in and saying" Hey, I want to donate my kidney". Dr wise could tell that I was a person that took care of others needs.. I reassured her that I am capable of taking care of my own as well and that I am getting better at asking people for help if I need it:-) I describe myself as a pleaser, doer, and caretaker...sometimes I think people think that being a "caretaker" is not a good thing.. I don't know any other way... I just enjoy life.. Enjoy people being happy.. Enjoy doing things for others.. I've always been a "caretaker" very interested in the medical field, volunteered at the hospital growing up...I love/loved it so much...I can't pinpoint when this seed was planted in me but, it's been there for a long long time... And I wouldn't change it for anything... Actually, I wouldn't change anything in my life.... Of course there has been battles and hard times... Everyone has those... But that is what makes us who we are.. No one is perfect.. I truly enjoy life... I try my best not to stress out about things! Sure we stress on silly things.. But when life hands me something really hard to deal with I try to keep my chin up and try everything in my power to fix it! Ok ok...here I am rambling on and on again... Bottom line I think things went well with Dr. Wise and I will find out what she has to report on the 14th... Until next time...
