Pittsburgh Day 4

Today turned out to be a much better day. We started out a little earlier and went to Presbyterian Hospital. Our first appointment was with a Dr. that didn't show because they just got a transplant donor. (Kind of exciting), the next Dr. didn't show either, finally Dr. Toyota came in and we could hardly understand a word he was saying. He was kind and funny. He gave us the risks (80% chance of surgery survival, 85% survival 1 year), talked about the surgery, he talked about her scars, he told us how he felt about doing it, which was pretty good. He said it would take about 11 hours to do the surgery, the heart first, then liver. They have done about 15 to 20 heart/liver transplants with excellent outcomes. Then Tracie came in and she is the Heart Transplant Coordinator. She told us how we would be listed, (which we are not yet), that Melissa will have to be at the hospital within 3 hours of call, there are some times when people are called and they don't get the organ for various reasons. Then we walked to Radiology, (while we were there one of our new friends from the Superbowl party showed up to give support) In Radiology she got a carotid Doppler, peripheral Doppler, chest x-ray, EKG. Then they gave her the barium for the CT scan with/without dye. She drank almost all of the barium and then they took her in to start an IV, as he was getting her history, he asked her if she had had a CT with dye before and how it went, Melissa told him it went well, she just had a little itching and they gave her benadryl. SOUND THE ALARMS !!!! They immediately canceled the test until tomorrow. Sent her home to pre medicate with prednisone. Well, she didn't have to finish the barium, and that made her jump for joy. Also, that meant we were done at 2:30p. Went to lunch and then we have been hanging out, making connections and fund raising. I did take some pictures (legally) of the house we are staying in. (This is for you Jeff)