TGH is world class...

Without a doubt, TGH is world class, I've always believed that and I know that my mom's in good hands there. We have forged friendships with dozens of people over the past 6 months and have seen many successes come from the transplants. I have heard of a couple of failures, didn't know them personally but overall it has been amazing. In today's meeting we listened to two people from a small city 36 miles outside of London England. They came to observe the way Toronto General Hospital handles transplants. Their professional position would be equal to that of our two transplant coordinators. It was a really great experience to hear how things are done in England, then to quickly lend praise once again to our amazing transplant team.

All in all, the day was good though I could have done without the 3 hour wait for clinic today. We ultimately left the clinic at 4:30pm not even being able to rebook an appointment for 2 months from now because they had already shut down the computer at the front desk. We were the last ones to leave the clinic it seemed...

Since I am a hardcore geek, and one who does not often follow rules I took the liberty to poke around at the doctor's terminal while they were off doing something to entertain themselves in another room. Each time they left us there and forgot to lock their workstation I would fumble through the various tabs and files that is my mother. And I learned a few things through reading... First and most disturbing, I am referred to in a few of the texts as "the husband" hahahaha something I quickly pointed out to the doctor the next time she entered the room, I know who made the error and I plan on correcting this the next chance I can get her into a corner to talk... Secondly I learned that my mother is listed as "status 1" which basically means she is stable and not expected to die anytime soon. So this puts her into a situation where the donor lungs must not be a good match for anyone else but her before she is to recieve them. She will be chosen second for them. How do I know this? Because when the doctor returned I begun to explain to her how I had been reading the screen and so she explained, and confirmed this fact to me. If you are listed as a "Status 2" then they consider your condition to be deteriorating and thus you are put much higher on their agenda for getting transplanted.

I am quite pleased that she is stable, but I still hope a good solid pair of lungs becomes available as I am mentally ready to move onto the next step in her care.

Since my mother has diabetes, currently controlled with pills, they have told us that post transplant she will almost certainly become insulin dependant. "Did anyone ever tell you this before?" the good doctor said to us...

Well all in all, some things were confirmed in my mind, and with her latest deep seeded infection out of the way we are ready for the next step...

I am also finding that a lot of you are asking me for status updates. In emails, on facebook etc... I hope you understand that it is far more efficient for me to blog when things change. And if I do not have any recent blogs about my mother's condition then it purely means that she is the same and that there is nothing to worry about...

You can bet your arse that I will blog my brains out when situations change, I can't wait more than a few hours before I let it all out in type...

Cheers!