Why Blog Now???

Indeed, why start blogging after being in the information systems business for 22 years but never really thinking that I had much need for an online journal. After all, I have been a writer of letters and diaries and poetry for years, but in my opinion, those things required the personal feeling of putting my pen to the paper, and in most cases, my target audience was either myself only or one other person. I have found email to be quite handy, and make frequent use of it. However, as I contemplated the things that are likely to be happening to me in the relatively near future, and realizing that there are actually several people who really want to know what's going on, and sending out emails with "cc" to everyone just seemed so yesterday, so I thought "this is what a BLOG is for!" And so it is.

To bring you up to date, it is now Saturday evening, June 12- my granddaughter McKenzie's 14th birthday- hard to believe, but the calendar doesn't lie. I gave her a gift card to Abercrombie, and she was planning to go shopping with it today. This past Wednesday, Stratton, who had driven down from Dallas, drove me to Houston for my appointment with Dr. Adaani Frost, one of the pulmonologists who have been treating me. Additionally, I had another pulmonary function test. As most of you know, this has been an extremely confusing time relative to my disease and the potential treatment of it. (Actually, there IS no treatment, short of a transplant, so that's what we're talking about here.) Steve has excellent insurance (Thank You, God) and of course I am eligible for Medicare, but I carry Part A only (the free part), because my primary insurer is Blue Cross/Blue Shield which is provided through McJunkin-Redman. If you understand anything about health insurance, you know the first rule: the bigger the group, the lower the risk- and as a merged company, MRC (the new name) is the largest pipe, valve & fitting distributor in the USA. That is why we have such great coverage for less than $300/month total- for both of us! Since Methodist Hospital- Houston is an "in-network" facility for BCBS, everyone, including my BCBS Case Manager, assumed that I would be covered to have a lung transplant there. However, for reasons that I don't really understand, but don't really matter, I am only insured if the surgery is at the Baylor Medical Center in Dallas. My current doctors are at Baylor College of Medicine- Houston, so we needed to get this co-ordinated and quickly.

Dr. Frost is both obviously brilliant and very blunt. She looked me straight in the eyes, and said "You need a transplant, and very soon." Stratton asked her if it was true that without a transplant, I might not live the rest of the year, and she said "That's a reasonable assumption." It is so weird to hear someone talking about your death right in front of you- and in such a conversational tone! But she is also a woman of power & influence- a full professor at the Medical School with a large private practice she shares with Dr. Safdar, who has been seeing me, but who is visiting family in Pakistan right now- (and I sure hope she's staying somewhere safe!) Anyway, Dr. Frost could tell that I was pretty anxious (putting it mildly) so she said "Here is my email address". Now that is something- not many physician's give patients their email address, or so I have found. After that, she said "I will call the director of the transplant evaluation team in Dallas, and I will call him today. And if you do not hear from him by Monday, I want you to email me." And she did, and that evening I had email from her saying that she had reached Dr. Ausloos, and that I should hear something from his staff soon. Thursday morning I was indeed called, and the test results are being sent to them, and I was told that I would learn when my appointment is very soon. On Friday, Donna (Intake co-ordinator) called, and we are being scheduled for next Thursday, and another girl named Laney is to call me Monday with details, as she was off yesterday. So I think that brings you up-to-date. I will probably post something tomorrow that will go into the history of what is happening to me- some of you will just want to skip that, as you already know. But each day, from now until there is no longer a need, I will post something, and if I leave anything out, you can always email me. I have set up a separate box for just me for the duration, because I will be using my laptop, and Steve & I download our Road Runner email to our desktop. My "mobile" email address is: trilbyeileen@gmail.com. Good night all!