NORMALCY REVISITED
Saturday was a day filled with slices of our pre-transplant life. First was a trip to Pleasant Hill for a long- overdue haircut. After fighting my way through the throngs of aggressive paparazzi who somehow learned of my itinerary I was able to enjoy a skilled ear-lowering from Nay A. Truly transformed my shaggy look, first time since, ummm, December I think.
A brief visit to the local TJ's was followed by the drive home, executed by ME! Yes it is my first experience behind the wheel since early January and I think I did a workmanlike job. Despite a coupla words of advise from Cheryl ("I woulda gone in the other lane". "You know you can turn left from this lane?" blah blah) we made it home unscathed and none the worse for the experience.
Saturday evening was a resumption of our attendance at Dinner with the Gang. This monthly tradition dates from 1992 and features (for those unfamiliar) dinner arranged by members in order of ascending age. The responsibility of selecting, reserving, communicating and paying for the meal is that of the specified member. It must be a restaurant we have not visited before, and since I last attended, spouses/significant others have been officially included making for a potential attendance of 10. We politely lined up outside Dona Tomas in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland and were shown to our table for nine. A review will perhaps follow later, but suffice it to say it was great in keeping with the ever-reliable recommendations of Dan and Carol Henry. Amazingly for the first time in anyone's memory Member Tanya R. ate her entire meal which is a significant testimonial.
Today I intend to continue my re-entry to normalcy by resuming my viewing of several televised motorsport events. Perhaps a bit of further grocery-shopping will reinforce the process.
TWO EXCELLENT NEW FAQ'S
The first of our newest FAQ's comes to the Transplant Trib's palatial headquarters from Sandy Chaw residing in Concord. CA. She asks "R.J., could you describe NPO for those who may be new to the blog or perhaps drifted to sleep during the previous blog about this painful process?" Certainly Sandy. NPO is an abbreviation for the Latin words "nadie per orem" which according to my sharp recall of Junior High Latin means "nothing by mouth". This is a necessary prerequisite to literally (it seems like) thousands of procedures, usually ones that require or may require some form of sedation. It simply means that at some specified time, usually the midnight prior to the procedure, you must refrain from eating or drinking anything except sips of water to take medications. If the procedure is scheduled and executed early in the day you have a chance to perhaps end the fast before, say, noon. But this is a hospital and things are unlikely to go as planned. If you are delayed, bumped by a more critical patient, experience technical difficulties, or even if the staff decide it is "just because we feel like it" you are basically SOL (a terminology I will not describe here) until your fortunes change. Even if a doctor is somehow Lost in Space or decides he or she MIGHT do a procedure, you would be placed on a precautionary and unspecified NPO until final decisions are made. In many departments they have NPO-ending food and beverages ranging from maybe some fruit juice to the truly outstanding bag lunches of which I have enjoyed many, particular in my beloved Cath Lab. Nothing is as satisfactory after an angiogram as a turkey sandwich, Graham cracker, apple and milk.
Our next FAQ comes to us from our great friend Kelly D. all the way from Terragona, outside Barcelona in the Catalunya region of Spain. Kelly's question is " Irving for your next FAQ could you please describe your organ procurement process (black market, Colombian drug cartel and all that)?
Of course Kelly, I will tell you as much as I know. For a more complete and compelling audio piece on this subject everyone should go to the link on this blog for the NPR broadcast of Health Matters. As for me specifically I know very little. I am sure no black market or drug cartels were involved and I am relatively sure I did not go to China to receive organs from some poor condemned criminal. UCSF of course adheres to all the procurement regulations of the California Transplant Donor Network and the United Network for Organ Sharing. I do not know where the organs came from or when. I know that it was very soon before the surgery as it is well known how relatively short the time is that a heart is viable I do not know if they were removed elsewhere or if this was done at UCSF. And naturally there are pretty strict policies concerning virtually all information about the donor and his or her family. I was briefly informed by my kidney surgeon that the donor was young and I think somehow we were told the age was 22 years but I am not at all sure about that. I am not yet sure about what I wanna know either but in any case it is definitely not up to me so I will wait until info becomes available. Again I urge you all to listen to the NPR piece to get a much better idea of the process.
Thank you Sandy and Kelly for the great FAQ suggestions!
RETURN TO NORMALCY PART TWO
Before everyone passes out from Too Much Info on this chapter of the blog I will point out (briefly) that one thing has definitely changed and cannot be a Return to Normalcy. I got up early this morning to watch my recorded backlog of recent races but it is now almost noon and I am STILL bloggin'. Help me! Does anyone know of a Blogger's Anonymous meeting in the Tri-Valley area?
Gotta be all for now. Accept my apologies.
Bob/Irv
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