OK- I think you get the idea- these tests were complex, some were invasive (meaning they included being stuck), others not, but all were a bit stressful. After Tuesday, however, I now see that I got a bit of a break, although we were over there all day Wednesday beginning at 9:00. The first item of the agenda was actually a meeting. Everyone who was at Baylor that week undergoing tests for transplantation was required to attend this meeting, so there were probably about 15 people there. It was all about the money. It was very informative- and since everyone's situation is different, all scenarios were discussed. Each transplant has a price tag on it- just for the surgery. Double-lung is $350,000 I believe. It was in this meeting, on Wednesday June 23, that I realized that if I could get Part B of Medicare, that I needed to do it immediately, because when it comes to transplants, believe it or not, Medicare pays better than private insurance! Anyway, since I got home, I have been to the Social Security office, and there is a "loophole" that allows me to be immediately enrolled - it is because I am currently insured via my spouse who is still working full-time. Anyway, I'm getting a little ahead- but that was when the light went off- because if Medicare pays for it, I can have it in Houston!!
After the meeting, which by the way, took place on the top (17th) floor of Roberts Hospital, and when you get off the elevator on that floor, you actually do a double-take, because it's just NOT a hospital anymore. It is a penthouse! It was all full of rich, dark wood- lovely & quite costly sofas & chairs throughout the main room, and then there was a hall and there were many separate classrooms and meeting rooms. But while we were sitting there on one of those sofas feeling a little like Alice when she fell through the hole, we took in the view- all of the west side of Dallas lay before us out of solid plate glass windows. We decided that private hospitals have to have places like this in which to entertain prospective donors. It wasn't long after we arrived that we discovered that our meeting was in one of those classrooms.
Back down the elevator to the reality of a hospital- after the Financial meeting, I had a date with Radiology. Once again, I didn't realize that there were so many ways to X-ray someone. I used to feel like we should all be very conservative about our exposure to radiation- in other words, not get unnecessary x-rays. However, at this point I feel like my life is on the line, and if I have to have a huge number of rads in order to clear me for surgery, so be it. Just to name a few: they did standard X-rays of my chest & then of my entire skeleton! I had to get into some ballet positions- I kid you not- in order to have my leg x-rayed at just the right angle! Then I had a CT Scan of my chest & head, a sonogram of my abdomen & pelvis, a "sniff test" and finally- the worst- nuclear VQ Scan (and I don't know what the VQ stands for, but I can describe the test. First, I would imagine everyone is curious about the sniff test. I thought "SNIFF" was going to be some kind of acronym for a long name. But no- this is a test to see if the two halves your diaphragm move symmetrically. I didn't realize that we have TWO diaphragms- a left & a right, as it were. So you stand in front of the white plate with your arms extended, and at the doctor's command, you "sniff" three times without taking a breath. Well, I could only muster 2 sniffs, but I did that about 3 times, and the doc was satisfied. (This was one of two tests in my entire week which had to be administered by a physician. The other one was the heart catheterization.) The last test that day was the worst of the entire week. I'm not sure what it was called, but it was designed to give the doctors more information about my lungs. It is given in the "Nuclear Medicine" department, and like so many other test, it involves a combination of cameras, computers and (I'm sure) very high-end software. The technician had me lie down on the table on my back. Above my face was this huge contraption that looked like it belonged on the space shuttle or inside a control module. Emanating from this was a hose- about 3" in diameter, and the hose ends in a mask. The mask was the problem. It was designed to fit very tightly, covering my mouth and nose, and not only was it tight with a vacuum seal, it also had to be "buttoned" on to make certain it didn't slip. The tech explained to me that many people had trouble with this test for the first 2 minutes. After that, apparently, most of them are able to settle down. The actual test involves more of those radioactive isotopes- like with the Glofil- except this time the isotopes enter your body via your lungs, in that you inhales them. So the way iot is supposed to act is this: patient is wearing mask, patient is breathing "normally", (I wish I had $1 f!or every time someone told me to "breathe normally", because the fact of the matter is- I can't!) The tech begins injecting the isotopes through the plastic hose above the mask, so that by the time they reach the patient's nose & mouth, they hare vaporized and can enter. I made it past the first two minutes- in fact I was going into the 4th minute3 when I guess I had a panic attack. Anyway, I could not breathe. Now she had 100% oxygen flowing into me via that same mask, and she kept reassuring me that my saturation was 100%, but I felt like my breathing apparatus was paralyzed. She had told me in the beginning that if I ever needed her to stop, to just let her know. After she freed me from the confines of the mask, I heaved like I had runa marathon. Just plain old panic- now I know that if I have to take that test again, I will take a Xanax 30 minutes prior to it. I asked her if we had to repeat it all, and she said no, because she had everything on film that she needed. The second half of the test involved no mask, so I had no problem with it. This time, I think she injected me before she ran the camera by.
Tomorrow & will summarize Thursday & Friday & try & bring this entire thing up to real time.
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