Transplant Time?

9/29/08:
On Monday, 9/29 we received a call that Alan's MELD had been raised to a 30 in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina region. We were on our way into the hospital for a consultation with regard to followup for the Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) tumor. We met with one of the transplant doctors for a consultation.


9/30/08:
Yesterday morning (9/30) at 8:30 we received a call from the transplant coordinator at Chapel Hill with an "offer". That's what they call it when there is an organ available. At first we thought she was just following up on Alan's visit to Transplant the previous day when we had conversations about "laproscopic radio frequency ablation" or RFA. This was scheduled for 10/14 to keep the tumor in check.

We arrived at the hospital ER at 10:40 a.m. (9/30). The ER is always the first stop. Initial blood work - a mere 11 vials, EKG, chest x-ray, and vitals are routine. Visits from anesthesiology, pharmacy, coordinator, research coordinator, phlebotomist, and nurses made the day pass very quickly.

We knew that the potential donor was going to surgery at around 3:00 p.m. and we would not have Alan heading into surgery until between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m.

Around 5:30 the hepatologist came in to explain there was an unusual situation that had developed and the the offer may no longer be on the table. This situation revolved around the potential donor. At that time we had conversations around changing Alan's status to accept an expanded criteria organ. His status was changed which potentially allows for more offers.

7:30 p.m. we headed to see the new parents and granddaughter. Adorable doesn't do her justice. Mom and dad are doing well too. Alan was allowed a light dinner in case he got a call back for the organ.

10:30 bed for some rest with the phone next to us.

10:01/08:
1:52 a.m. 10/1 (Happy Birthday Mom!) Phone call from the coordinator with an organ offer. Not the initial organ. That offer had not come back on the table, so hopefully the situation has been resolved for that family.

This is an expanded criteria organ. In this case it means that at some time the person was exposed to Hepatitis B, but had no other problems. There have been many successful transplants with this type of organ with no recurrence of the Hep B. Alan has started the immunizations for this because this is one we said we would accept. We accepted the offer and if this goes through he will be on a medication to block Hep B. This has proved successful in every case. The organ donor is in the 50s so I told Alan our livers will be about the same age so that means they can grow old together.

It's 4:16 a.m. as I sit in the ER at Chapel Hill writing this. We arrived just before 3:00 a.m. Alan is resting easily and is very comfortable with the decision to accept this organ. We anticipate the donor going into surgery around 7:00 a.m. with Alan heading into surgery around 12:00 noon today. We have seen the Anesthesiology Intern, had some additional blood drawn and waiting for word on whether or not they would like another EKG and chest x-ray.

Alan doesn't have a private room with a tv today but it is still fairly quite here. Pouring rain outside on our way here.

Everyone at UNCH has been great. I've been taking photos so Alan can have a photo journal with his care providers.

For some reason still no email access but the internet is up and running. More word will be forthcoming through the blog as opposed to the individual emails.