Dear Friends and Relatives-
Thursday we made a voyage to UCSF for some scheduled appointments. First we attended the Heart and Lung Transplant support group which consists of mostly lung transplant recipients and prospective recipients. One man has been waiting for a double lung in the hospital for over four months. There is one heart transplant guy who is going on five years since his transplant and is doing great. There was one other man who is waiting for a heart and kidney like I am but he is not on dialysis yet so he seems to be doing OK. Overall it was a beneficial experience since everyone who has had a transplant says it is rough going but well worth it.
Next appointment was in the transplant clinic with the pre-transplant coordinator Celia Rifkin and the transplant cardiologist Dr. Rame. I am a priority two candidate which means I am behind those on priority one due to my relative good health. Those highest on the list are either on a ventricular assistance device (VAD) or are in the hospital on IV medications to sustain them until organs are found. So the good news
is I am doing well but I am not sick enough to get first crack at a heart and kidney. I do come before heart only since I am waiting for two matching organs. My goal is to stay as fit as I can for as long as I can which may keep me on the bottom of the list but is preferable to either having a VAD implanted (a major surgery in itself) or languishing in the hospital for weeks or months.
I asked Celia couple of questions that I found interesting. The operation takes about ten hours. I wondered what they do with your original heart. They ask permission to use it for research. And I need to be within four hours of UCSF at all times with a few necessities on hand to start up anytime. It is not uncommon to get a call then have the surgeon reject the organs as inadequate. In my case it may be a while as they are not willing to settle for inferior organs so it may take some time to find the right match.
It was well over 100 degrees in Livermore and nearly 90 in SF which is highly unusual as it is almost always foggy and cold up on Parnassus where the hospital is located. So we headed home via the coast route and had a nice dinner in Half Moon Bay where it was bright and sunny and over 80 degrees.
My cast is completely off and it seems I have pretty much recovered form my broken leg. I even drove my S2000 and had no trouble working the clutch with my left leg. A couple more sessions of physical therapy and I should be good to go.
Best wishes to all-
R,J. Moss
