YAY!!!!! Happy! 
Since the whole week of testing and evaluation, I have been home, in Austin, on pins and needles awaiting a decision from the transplant team in Houston about whether they thought I was a good candidate for the surgery and outcome of this whole, miraculous adventure. I was notified on Wednesday morning that, indeed, I will be accepted as a Double Lung Transplant Candidate!!!! The news made me very happy, and a little anxious,as you could imagine. This means it's REALLY happening. I think I was in a whirlwind of a tornado from the beginning.... this is truly a reality now.. Feet on the ground..... Ready, set....GO!? Well, almost...
A BIG hurdle we have is to wait now for tne insurance company to approve the whole Transplant. Only the evaluation process was approved up to this point. I'm sure it's just a lot of paperwork and red tape, but something that may take some time... again.. of waiting!
That's okay though, 'cause I have a few more things to get done before I am placed on the list and a viable candidate waiting for a donor. My team of doctors wanted me to have a few additional things done so that I am in tip-top shape before my whole body is pretty much shut down and immune suppressed that it could not fight off infection....
#1. I will have to get the dreaded wisdom teeth out and #2. I had to see an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) doc yesterday to ensure that everything was all okay in my sinuses. After enduring ANOTHER painful test of an "Up your nose with a rubber hose" the size of a yard stick, it seemed, and a comment like: "This might hurt just a little"...ya think? I am finally cleared in that area, at least. Nothing to address, at least! WHEW!
After I get my teeth extracted and find a place to live in Houston... even if it is just a temporary stay housing till we find something more permanent, I will then let my nurse coordinator know so SHE WILL CALL the National Organ Donation Center to make me OFFICIALLY LISTED!
Thanks for sticking with me throughout all of this! I really appreciate all the love and support I have received and only hope that I can run everyone around in circles after all of this is said and done! THAT is what I am really looking forward to! I have the energy in my mind and legs.. just my lungs won't cooperate!
I need to give a special shout out to my "fi-BRO" and comrade whom I've known for over 20 years. Scott has CF and has been there as a brother and close friend to me for a long time and has helped me through this whole ordeal with his blow-by-blow story of how HIS Double lung transplant went... ALMOST 3 years ago already! He is my age and is doing great!!!*He even showed me pictures of the ugly, scarred, infected and gaping-holed CF lungs which they removed from his body. They were 8 pounds each and they were filled with mucus and crud from Cystic Fibrosis' devastation! I so look forward to looking and feeling even half as good as he does! He is running rings around everyone already and helped me tremendously with the information about the testing and post transplant questions I was dying to know. My friends Sherri S. and Christy J. E. also have been super helpful! Christy got her lungs in just 9 days after being placed on the list and Sherri is still waiting to get her lungs, although she went through the evaluation awhile back and was tabled 'cause she was a little too healthy at the time. I know she will breathe free again soon, too!
They are blessings to me as ALL of you are ... in each, unique way which you touch my life!! Spread the word. We need more organ donors! Share my blog with whomever you like...and don't you NEED a new T shirt!? www.oneon1design.com/just-breathe is where to find the info.
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