Rough Ride on the Transplant Turnpike

IT'S NOT ALL SWEETNESS AND LIGHT

Remembering my youth once again, it was always a treat to roll through the toll booth and enter the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It meant we were going someplace fun and different for a vacation, and it was unlike the usual roads we travelled in and around Pittsburgh. And boy, it was smooth, gently curving through pretty wooded PA countryside with no billboards, fast food outlets, or ugly roadside buildings. And the best thing were the occasional travel plazas with gas and Howard Johnson's. HoJo's were the sole provider of food an the Turnpike, and being Mosses, it was all about the food wherever we went.

But on the SuperSlab known as the Transplant Turnpike, between the gentle curves and Howard Johnson's there are potholes, bumps, loose gravel and lots of construction delays. No such thing out there as a "Survey Party" either. Of course even when it says that on my favorite freeway, I have yet to see a party in progress, only a guy in an orange vest looking through a telescope at some other guy in an orange vest holding a stick. What the Hell kinda party is that, anyway?

But I digress. Recent miles rolled up on the TT have been anything but pleasant. So let the lament commence.

NICE BUT SAD LUNCH DATE

After my exhilarating Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) session at UCSF/Mission Bay, we had arranged to join our friend Ena for lunch before exiting The City. We met Ena and her husband Om about two years ago at the UCSF Heart and Lung Transplant Support Group. Some of you may recall that when the speaker recognized Om, she exclaimed "Oh, you're the guy with the Ferrari!" We immediately gravitated to them and discovered Om was a recent heart/kidney recipient, and did in fact own a very low-mileage 1989 Ferrari Testarossa. We were invited to their block party that summer, where we met some very nice neighbors. I was also allowed to sit at the wheel of the TR after Om fired it up, and the noise and exhaust blast were intoxicating.

When I was admitted for better or worse to 10 Long last January, I called Om and got his voicemail. I did not hear anything for quite a while, until Ena called. She had been picking up messages on Om's cell phone, and called to tell me Om had died just after Christmas, 2009. He had started to feel badly, with a very sore stomach, nausea, and labored breathing. Ena, who was very convincing in her encouragement of us, was unable to convince him to go to Emergency. After three days of this, she went in to check on him first thing in the morning and found he had expired during the night.

We have kept in touch with her, and offered to take her to lunch at an Indian restaurant, Chaat Cafe, across the street from Moscone, after the MRI. Excellent food, by the way; Ena's in-laws are from India and they love this place. Anyhow, she is still having a hard time even now, and had a rough go of it straightening everything out after Om's death. Great to see her, very good food, but it was hard to come away feeling too happy as we hit the bridge.

BUT BY THE END OF THE WEEK, THE NEWS DID NOT IMPROVE

Several months ago I was asked by our pre-transplant coordinator to visit a patient, David, waiting for a heart and kidney on 10 CCU. We of course did so, and found him hesitant and scared about the procedure. Additionally, he had come into UCSF in fairly bad condition, and all of this was a bit hard for him to handle. We spoke with him, gave him some encouragement, and subsequently visited several more times. He seemed to get better, being removed from oxygen and his feeding tube. I dropped over when I was admitted in October, and he had just been told organs were available for transplantation that very day!

Unfortunately, he had an infection and had to be taken off the list for a while. He seemed to decline a bit, and certainly his chances took a steep dive when the one and only heart transplant surgeon, our very own Dr. Hoopes, left for Kentucky with no replacement named. I called at Thanksgiving from Capitola, and not much had changed. He sounded decidedly despondent.

I called again two weeks ago and was told he had been transferred to California Pacific. When I phoned him there, the best the nurse could do was put the receiver up to his ear. I could not hear anything on the line, so I just said my thing, wished him the best, and said we would come by CPMC for a visit. I asked a good friend works there to check in on him for us. She reported she could not locate him. I did not feel very optimistic.

Last Friday, I was able to ascertain from anonymous sources that in fact, David did die the day after I tried to have a conversation with him. Needless to say this was not what we wanted to hear. Cheryl and I both saw David in CCU at UCSF, and I was able to meet his daughter who was to be his caregiver after the transplant. I gave her all our contact info, and said were ready to assist in any way we could. It just wasn't meant to happen for David, however.

AND THE HITS JUST KEEP COMIN'

Though they pale compared to the news noted above, I had a bit of bother that week as well. Friday, I got the results of both my bone density study and the MRI. The verdicts are osteoporosis, degenerative disc disease, and some level of spinal stenosis. These are the causes of my chronic back and leg pain. Of course, suddenly two weeks ago, I stopped limping, felt virtually pain-free, and happily abandoned my cane. So the truth, in this case, hurt more than the ailments.

Initially, the treatment plan is more calcium citrate and weight-bearing exercise for the osteoporosis part. An appointment with a spinal neurologist at UCSF will be arranged to address the back bothers. Once again, compared to other, more frightening possibilities, this is just a mild swerve on the ol' Turnpike.

You may assume that all is pain and fear here at Transplant Tribune World Headquarters, but you would be wrong (again!). In fact we have had a pretty good January. To learn the final outcome of what looks to have been a s****y week, though, you will just have to keep an eye out for our next issue. So for now, I remain simply....

Bob/Irv