Friday, August 28

We just got back from our appointment with Dr. Hernandez here at Duke, which went well. Very low key guy, but he knows that we already have been through all of the initial transplant meetings and have been on the list for a relatively long time, so there was no need to go into too much detail about that side of it. Then we went and they did another echocardiogram and drew 25 tubes of blood (no exaggeration - it really was 25 tubes plus a few "waste" tubes they drew and then threw away). Now we are waiting to hear back from their offices about the meetings we have to have with the transplant coordinator, surgeons, social workers, and it seems like there was one other but I can't remember.

Bottom line is that everything looks good, and within about a week he should be on the transplant list here. The even better part is that Dr. Hernandez says that chances are good that a heart will become available for John relatively soon since at this time there aren't a whole lot of folks on the list here who are direct "competition" for his blood type, body size, etc. That is good. Of course there is no way to tell when this could happen, but we made an appointment for 6 weeks from now to see the doctor again and are hoping for a heart before then. After the surgery it's about a week in the hospital, then a month of once a week appointments, sometimes more often, then they start to spread out a bit more. Somewhere after that we will either transfer back to Emory, or just drive back up to here for the appointments, even if they are every few weeks.

Of course we realize that this is a huge surgery, but it didn't even come up that there is any alternative. This doctor didn't even change any medications or anything that we are doing now. The doctors at Emory have been great, but it sure is nice to have some hope that this might happen sometime sooner before another crisis for John, or any more shocks, or any of that stuff.

Thanks again to all of you for your thoughts and prayers, and we will keep in touch. Our room here is very cozy, to say the least, but it will work out fine. May get a little bit of cabin fever, but we will explore Durham and the area by car a little at a time for excitement.