Good news on the medical front

Photo by Peter Pryharski on Unsplash

Wednesday, I was called into the transplant office to talk to every medical person who would be involved with my kidney transplant if I get one. I had one of these before in 2021 and they gave me a letter and a list of what I needed to do to still get on the list.

Now it is the beginning of 2023 and I was still battling with them to get me at least in front of the surgeon. One of the secretaries finally called me around October and told me that I had been lost in the system. The reason given was that they had been moving offices. Of course that made me more tempetuous when they wanted me to do all of those tests again. I was told that they were yearly.

In my paperwork only two items were considered yearly— pap smear and mammogram. I had done those. I was told that I had been told, no proof by the way, that all of those tests, a lot of them are expensive, had to be done yearly. In a normal situation most of those tests are done five years or more. Also some of the tests were not under the Medicare insurance, which mean I would have to pay out of pocket.

After several weeks of haggling, I finally got my cardiologist involved. I now don’t have to do those tests. I think I asked one of the clerks if she would pay for one of the tests because I was living on a fixed income and I sure didn’t have enough money to pay for it. She was shocked when I asked her that. Yep, I was pretty confrontational.

So Wednesday, after seeing four professions—pharmacist, nutritionist, social worker, and nurse— I was asked if I wanted to see the surgeon because he showed up. He wasn’t supposed to be there that day.

I said, “Sure.”

So the surgeon talked to me, looked at my paperwork, asked me my name twice and then said, “I haven’t seen you on my list.”

I told him that I hadn’t been on the list even though I had been trying for two years.

“What’s your bloodtype?” he asked.

I said, “O positive.”

He stopped and a strange expression went over his face. “I’m going to find out why you aren’t on the list.” Then he marched out.

Here is the good news. I was called on Friday with the news that I was on the list. I still had to do a blood test and a kidney scan in the next week or two, but they would schedule it at the hospital.

So after all the yelling, anger, and finally calmness after the storm, I made the list. It was shocking to the surgeon that I was almost 3 years on dialysis and had never made his list.

So whoop-de-doo. I hope this means I will actually get a kidney.

And yes, I look too good to be on dialysis.