Karen is feeling great today. We've had a busy couple days attempting to get everything in order prior to the transplant. Only two weeks away! Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!
Yesterday (31 Jan) we had Karen's pre-op appointment at UCLA Medical Center. We had to leave the house at 0445 to make a 0700 appointment at the lab. Ouch. Unfortunately we ran into LA traffic which added an unplanned 40 minutes to the drive. Who would have thought there would be traffic in LA at 7 in the morning?
After Karen's lab work, we went upstairs to the Nephrology Office where we met with the transplant coordinator. She gave us the run-down of how things will work immediately before the surgery. We then met with the director of the Kidney Transplantation division at UCLA. It's a good feeling when the attending physician is just about the number one guy in the whole world at what he does. Lastly we met with Karen's surgeon. It's pretty neat to talk with the guy that in two weeks will be accomplishing such an amazing procedure. I have so much to say about this doctor, but I'll save that for another post. What I will say is that he has an incredible way of putting us (most importantly Karen) at ease. Karen and I have been a bit "stressed" as of late, as you can imagine. After spending quite some time with him, we both left with smiles on our faces, limitless sense of hope, and an agreement that, "that guy is freakin' awesome." We are lucky and blessed to be where we are.
As I mentioned, we have been a bit stressed lately. You can imagine we have been working through about a hundred things prior to the surgery. Kids, dog, family, travel, lodging, Karen's Master's degree, dance, basketball, couches, work, vehicles, dead batteries in truck (really? yep.), one-week plan, two-week plan, one-month plan. Aaaahhhh! Oh yeah, and the kidney transplant.
In reality, we have nothing to complain about. We are stationed at the best base we could possibly be stationed for Karen to have a kidney transplant. We are surrounded by dozens of friends that will drop what their doing to help us. We are part of an Air Force family that WILL NOT allow undue hardship or stress to take place (my work has been incredibly understanding about the situation), our family is behind us 100%, and we have many wonderful people praying for Karen's health. Really - how lucky are we?
Karen's mother will arrive on Saturday and stay with us until the 14th or 15th when we head down to L.A. for the surgery. Her mother has her pre-op appointment on Feb 7th, so I'll update after that.
Thanks for reading, and please keep praying.
-Bob
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