I didn't feel like I wrote enough last night to qualify as an entire chapter, so this is just a continuation of it. I'm really trying to get to the "exciting" part of the testing procedure, but I also need to continue to fill in some history here & there. One very important item is Twice Blessed House. This is where we stayed- both when Steve & I went for 2 days and again when Bettie & I went for the week. Right on the fringe of the Baylor Medical campus, along Gaston Avenue, is a huge apartment complex called the Marquis. These are nice apartments, quite up-to-date, and are very handy for dental students, as the Baylor College of Dentistry is right there, as well as employees of the medical center, or just anyone. The Junior League of Dallas has done a wonderful thing. They have a non-profit named Twice Blessed House which they underwrite & support. There is a block of apartments rented at all times to them, which they make available to organ transplant patients and caregivers, both before & after the actual transplant. In the case of pre-surgery, like me, the patients would rightfully be called "potential transplant patients", since obviously there are many who are evaluated but not all are deemed suitable for the program. Again, I believe it is the selectivity that Baylor employs that caught the eye of Blue Cross, but also, as my case manager told me, frankly they had no coverage in Texas until very recently, and they selected the Baylor program in Dallas as their "Blue Center of Distinction" in Texas. As to why the program in Houston is not also listed, it is anybody's guess, but Dr. Frost says that Blue Cross has always been very partial to the Dallas hospital. Even Dr. Ausloos said that he feels like Dallas is too conservative. And that is why I am doing everything in my power to be able to be listed in Houston as well, because I think I will be accepted there, and will probably get a call much sooner because of their volume. But I digress. Twice Blessed House has its own office, there at the apartments, with an administrator & an assistant and volunteers to help keep up with the work. The rooms are made available on the basis of availability, and just to give you an example of a "God thing" as my friend Patty Edwardsen calls it, Bettie & I got the last available room that Friday afternoon for Sunday arrival. There can be one caregiver per patient during the testing phase- I don't know how they handle it afterwards, because our neighbor last week was a family of at least 3 people- we met the teen-age son, and he told us that his dad had a liver transplant and they had been there 3 months! That is the other thing- the Dallas program requires the patients to stay very close for 12 weeks following the surgery, although they do dismiss some people earlier if they are doing very well. Anyway, these are entire apartments, complete with a washer/dryer, a full kitchen including dishwasher, a nice living area with a flat-screen TV (large), a bedroom (or two, depending on need) and a bath. Therefore, it is not necessary to eat out or bring in take-out unless that is your choice- it is a home away from home. All of this costs the patient $40 per night- that is the big bonus. Baylor also has a hotel on campus that is a full-service hotel, and it is made available for any family members of patients in any of the hospitals, and those rooms are $89 per night, still considered quite a discount. But Twice Blessed House is just for transplant people, and we definitely felt doubly blessed! Not only does the Junior League financially underwrite the program, but they also have something special almost every day. Every Wednesday someone goes to the grocery store and shops for the patients. All you have to do is give them your list on Tuesday & you can pick up & pay for your groceries on Wednesday evening. Every Thursday an entire evening meal is furnished there in the "office" of TBH, which has a nice, roomy lobby. We saw a flyer for a crafts program, and there are other things that they do as well. So I take back any catty remark I may have ever made in the past about Junior Leaguers- I was just jealous because I had to work and was never a candidate to be a member anywhere I lived.
One thing that we did not have was any kind of Internet connectivity. Apparently, this was outside the budget- other people who rent the apartments can put in DSL or cable routers, but the rules of TBH say that "any attempt to set up an Internet connection using the telephone line will result in eviction". They don't have to worry about the cable, because the TBH apartments don't have cable either! They really don't need it- I think we counted 17 stations that somehow make it through the air to the sets there - all the networks, PBS, and umpteen Spanish language stations! There is connectivity inside the hospitals in places- like the cafeterias. However, my schedule did not take lunch into account- I had to make Bettie go eat something while I was in a procedure because there was no time allotted for it.
As I said, we were so fortunate to have Stratton available. He is self-employed, so to speak- with 2 primary jobs. He works about 20 hours per week managing a bank of servers for a guy who owns a business and is frequently out of town. Stratton has a key, and he simply goes & does what he needs to do, and sometimes this is at night- and Stratton is still a nightowl. Then, his "main job" is at an Antique Mall. The one where he works is called Lula B's, and they currently have 2 locations, contemplating a 3rd. This is what is so weird about that particular business- when the current recession got underway and people were losing their jobs and small businesses (including other antique malls) were closing right & left, Lula B's opened their 2nd location. Stratton has a booth at each location, and he is also one of the managers. It is a co-op, so all the vendors work shifts, but someone is always in charge of the register, opening & closing for the day, etc. Stratton has been doing more of that lately, and of course any time something sells from his booth, he gets the money, whether he is there or not. He has done quite well- his specialty is 50's & 60's furnishings and lamps. He finds many things on eBay for a song, marks them up quite a bit, and sells them. Other things he finds at garage & estate sales. For example, the estate sale for the contents of this house (Bea Buller's furniture & everything else down to the partial roll of wax paper) was excellently handled by one of my South Park High School friends, Betty Merendino Lebus. She & her sister have a business doing estate sales, and they did ours. A desk- just a plain, large, avocado colored desk, did not sell here. It had a price tag of $10 I think. Stratton put it in his booth for $325 and sold it in 3 days. As they say, "one man's trash.....".
Anyway, Stratton & his room-mate Brian Loftin came & unloaded Bettie's car. This was after we had picked up the keys at the aforementioned hotel lobby, because it was a Sunday and the TBH office was closed. When we got to our unit, the same one Steve & I stayed in the week before, the key would not open it. It was a dead-bolt, and you could hear the tumbler and then it was like it hit something- and we knew that it was hopeless. The young man next door was out, and he tried, thinking maybe we weren't using enough force, but it was just not going to open. So I called the manager of TBH on her cell- the "emergency" number on our paperwork. She had to get dressed and drive 30 minutes to get there, so I sat in the car (which was in a covered garage on the same level as the room) and sucked on my oxygen. Even though it was around 8:00, it was still beastly hot, and the heat gets to me worst of all. I know for a fact that before A/C, people with PF didn't live through a summer in a climate like this. When Serena (the manager) arrived, she had the spare key- it didn't work either. Fortunately, the cleaning staff had been in the apartment after we left the preceeding Friday, or it might have appeared that Steve & I were responsible for the jammed lock. But they come in & clean after people leave, so we were off the hook. As late as the next Thursday, they still had not been able to get that door open! Well, you know I told you that we got the last room. However, like hotels everywhere, they keep one apartment vacant for just such an emergency, so we got that one. All of that delayed our moving in about an hour, at which time I was turning into a pumpkin fast. But Stratton arranged his schedule, which is flexible to a certain point, because he can trade off shifts with other vendors, so that he was available to be with us, run errands for us, and on Friday night, he cooked for us. His big #40 is coming December 26, and I told him that he is definitely a grown-up now! As a single man, he hasn't had to be responsible for anyone else but himself all these years- and it's true that people who do not have a family have less experience in putting aside their own needs because someone else needs something. Stratton has always been very generous, but here in the last few years, he has outdone himself. He has a large number of friends there, and I have met some of them, and they all treat me like another "mom", and are each in his own way praying for me.
I think I will stop for today and begin Chapter 4 with the Big Testing Week.
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