We Are Now Siamese Twins

Friday was a stressful day as you can tell from Dan’s last post….but that is only half the story.

Like Dan….my Friday started out with an EKG and a lung scan then I went on to the Diagnostic Center for the pre-operative physical. Actually I was feeling rather calm and then they took my blood pressure in the hallway. It was 239! I couldn’t believe the numbers on the machine…the young nurse went, “Oh!” and then said, “Let’s try your other arm.” And once again…239 over 100 and something. Dan was standing there looking kind of stunned.

That nurse (Shelley) that puts the thermometer in and takes the blood pressure and asks questions was nearby and she said, “Let me put you in a room and you think happy thoughts and we’ll take your blood pressure again.”

I was thinking…no way that will work. This transplant is over….but I went into the room. I decided that maybe listening to music would help but I was so shook up that I couldn’t even turn on the iPod. Then Shelley comes in and decides to relax me by singing which I thought was ridiculous but….my blood pressure came up 122/72.

Dan’s nurse told him that the hallway blood pressure monitor is always off and the medical people in our family agree that it just couldn’t have been right. I think it is a miracle that I didn’t have a nervous breakdown over the number 239.

An hour later we went to the anesthesiology department. The first time my blood pressure was 140 and the nurse said, “That’s too high” so she starts to take it again and the machine malfunctioned so she starts hitting it with the flat of her hand which caused some anxiety on my part….but the second time my blood pressure was 130 which I guess is acceptable.

A P.A. came in and asked all the questions they ask. She said something to the effect of you must be O.K. or else you wouldn’t be here, but she proceeds to listen to my heart and lungs. I am thinking that I am 30 seconds from being out of this place. Then the P.A. stops and darts out of the room.

Another P.A. comes in and listens to me and says, “How long have you had a heart murmur?” “I don’t have a heart murmur,” I answer. “Oh yes you do….on a scale of one to six a one or a two is O.K. for surgery…and you have a soft three,” he says. “Can’t I have a hard two?” I wonder.

He leaves and an anesthesiologist comes in and she listens and the group of them get all excited, “Oh my gosh the great Dr. Groggel (the blood pressure specialist I saw in July) didn’t discover this and we did!” “What happened to her that spontaneously caused a level 3 heart murmur!” “The surgery is off for now….maybe we saved her life,” and the one looked at me and said, “We are doing this for your own good.”

Well I go out to the waiting room and I can hear Dan joking around with his P.A. I am sure that he thinks we are 30 seconds from being out of here as well so at a break in the action I go up, knock on the door, and tell him.

Well when he gets out we call my case manager Connie (yeah…gasp!) and Connie had already heard about this all. It is now 2:00pm on an August Friday afternoon and Connie said, “I can’t get you into Cardiology until Monday morning at 9:20am.” I told her that Dan had line placement at 6:00am (which is a bigger deal than we initially thought.) What happens if the line is put in and I fail the cardiology test? “Well,” Connie said….”they would take the line out the next day.” Couldn’t we do the line placement after I pass the cardiology test? “That would put the September 6th transplant back and we would have to schedule another surgery date.”

I felt like throwing up….but I did a counselor thing and said, “Let me review the choices to be sure I have them right….We could go ahead with Dan’s Monday surgery and then if my cardiology test doesn’t work out then he would have surgery the next day to remove the line or… “

Connie interrupts, “Let me try again. I will call back.”

Let me interject here that Dan is being a rock throughout this….but so many things in one day….his abnormal EKG report, the 239 blood pressure, the information that the line placement surgery is a big deal, the fact that his kidney function has once again worsened, and now the heart murmur….plus we had been at the hospital for hours on end. And for some reason we were worried about Sadie being locked in the apartment all day.

Connie called back. She must have pulled some major strings and she got me into cardiology for an echo cardiogram and a treadmill stress test. I got kind of a older P.A. named Rebecca who knew how to get things done and a young woman tech.

To summarize….I did the echo, they cancelled the treadmill, and my heart murmur is a slight number one on the scale. Dan and I stayed in the cardiology department until a doctor reviewed the echo and everything was approved by both the cardiologists and Connie.

We thanked everyone profusely. Dan restrained me from marching to the anesthesiology department and whacking them over the heads with a clipboard. Sadie didn’t mess up the apartment and she forgave us. We had Italian food (alcohol was involved) and I guess all is well.

I don’t know what more they can do to me before this surgery….brain scan?

I think that if the stress of this transplant process is making us closer….we are now Siamese twins.