We had a pretty busy day today. First I had to get some fasting blood work done. Then they gave me a Boost shake and drew blood after 1 hour and 2 hours. No surprise that they had a hell of a time getting a vein for the first draw. The male nurse got really bitchy with me, slamming things around like I had deliberately shrunken my veins just to piss him off. So in between the first and second blood draws, they sent me next door to the hospital to get an IV port put in so they didn't have to search for a vein every time. I have an MRI with contrast tomorrow too, so I could keep it in for that. BUT, by the time I got back over to the clinic building, that vein had blown so they couldn't even use it. Aargh! Really frustrating! They did manage to dig around and find a vein for the last 2 blood draws though. The nurses were pretty funny there - they all loved my diamond ring and asked to try it on, then were prancing around flashing my ring at people saying, "I said YES!" Such dorks!
The weather today was just beautiful. I think it was only supposed to get up to 40 degrees, but I was out walking around with a short sleeve tshirt. It was nice and cool and crisp. It felt so good, I was even up for a walk to the drugstore. Amazing, since I usually can't even walk to the mailbox at home. It felt good.
For our first appt, we met with the social worker. I don't think we really learned anything new from her. If I have the surgery here, we should plan to stay for about a month.
Then this afternoon, we met with Dr. Dunn. Before she came in, Louise (the transplant coordinator) stopped by and introduced herself. She pulled up my blood work and said that everything looked basically normal. My blood glucose looked good too, which is an indication that my islets work well. Then Dr. Dunn came in. She explained the procedure and drew out this incredible diagram of how the pancreas connects to all the other organs and veins in the abdomen. I will definitely have to scan it in when we get home, because she did an amazing job. She told us about this little tube that they put in your abdomen (about half the diameter of a coffee stirrer) that has tiny holes all along the tubing that drips lidocaine for several days. I had this with my shoulder surgery and it worked really well. The TP-IAT is a bit more extensive, but I'll take whatever I can get! I'm not sure if this is the exact thing, but here's something similar: http://www.iflo.com/prod_onq_classic.php I told a friend in one of my Facebook support groups about this and she just called the PA in Tucson to ask about it. He said that they could do those, but they only really work when you have a vertical incision vs the horizontal that they prefer for the surgery. BUT, I already have a vertical scar that they will reuse, thanks to my organ Russian Roulette. (I wish I had a nickel for every time a doctor has asked me, "Now WHY did they take your spleen out?") Yay! That makes me feel so much better! And I also love that I can post something on Facebook and in less than an hour, get a phone call from someone who just talked to my AZ doctors and got answers to all my questions. How did we ever survive before Al Gore invented the internet? Amazing!
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