Waiting and waiting and waiting…

We knew that once on the transplant list, we’d have to be patient and wait for a suitable donor to come along. What we weren’t prepared for was the wait just to get on the list. It’s now early August and Shirley still isn’t officially on the list.

We made our first trip to Seattle to be introduced to the transplant program in February. While there, they did a variety of tests and took 17 vials of blood for a battery of tests. They also gave Shirley a full page list of additional tests to be done back in Portland. The last of these were completed in April. But due to some mix-ups, some of the test results were not forwarded to the transplant program for a couple of months.

Finally, in June, we want back up for another visit. This was our Orientation session and included meetings with all sorts of people. I’ll devote another entry to describing this visit in greater detail.

Coming out of this visit, we were given the strong indication that Shirley’s case would be reviewed in the next week or so and she’d officially “on the list”. Alas, a week later, we learned that the team’s cardiologist had a concern about a small side artery on her heart. They wanted to do another test before placing her in the program. The test was completed—and yet again, the test results had trouble making it up to Seattle. Once they finally made it up, the issue was put to rest.

Then, the next weekly review committee meeting was cancelled due to vacations, and that takes us to the present. Each Wednesday (committee review day) brings the anxiety of wondering whether her case will be heard. Every piece of evidence suggests this step is just a formality—the head of the transplant program called Shirley’s pulmonologist and said she was an excellent candidate. We just can’t seem to get over this last hurdle.

Two more days until the next Wednesday. Maybe this is the week.