Thursday, December 15, 2011

Back to Transplant Clinic

So today was the first transplant clinic appointment since the false alarm.

Being at that clinic is quite bizarre. It's like a giant gathering of oxygen bottles, with lots of whooshing and beeping and people looking at each other in a strange manner..... trying to work out why they're there, but far too polite or embarrassed to ask.

Lots of really sick looking people. People who can't breathe adequately enough to even walk anymore. Needing a carer to push them around in a wheelchair.

It makes me feel a bit out of place - like I'm not actually sick enough to be there.

There's an entire array of medical professionals who are part of the transplant team, so at each appointment, you see a different doctor.

Today my appointment was with one of the doctors that I hadn't met previously. She explained that the type of false alarm that I had was quite unusual.  I'm assuming that most false alarms don't make it as far as lying on the operating table prepped and ready to go for surgery....

As we were staring at a CT image of my lungs on the computer screen, she also mentioned that I'm quite an unusual and complicated case, and that they're probably going to need two surgeons instead of the usual one, as it's going to take quite a long time to chisel away at my lungs to remove them. Years and years of scarring plus previous surgery means that it's much more difficult. Oh joy.

Anyway, who knows what will happen next.

I've had this really strange feeling all week that I'm going to get a phonecall... I wonder?

Thursday, December 1, 2011