Second Day of Testing & Summary

On the second day of the testing, it was more like a day of meetings. I first met with the medical psychologist. Basically the goal there is to make sure I have the right mindset to take this on. If I am 100% sure that I am ready to do this. I am in good psychological standing. Not depressed or suicidal or even aware how serious this situation is. The guy I met with was good. Asked a lot of questions and the whole time I was there, I never heard a peep out of the 11 people living in my head and had no urge to stand on my head and quote the Gettysburg Address. Ha ha. I thought I would insert my own joke before I got a bunch of comments on how much he must have found wrong with me.
The next person was the financial coordinator. She was straight up business and was very knowledgeable. Above that she was very helpful to help you wrap your head around what all this could potentially cost and ways to help save. Not too much to say there. Just a lot of figures talk that made a whole lot of cents! Get it? Cents as apposed to sense. Ha ha. I am on a roll today.
Ok, we got out of there at about 2:15pm and went up to see the doctor. My appointment was at 4pm but I am hoping that they may get to see me early. So much for that. The clinic was about one hour behind. I was not seen until about 5:30pm. After a nice nap in a chair using a fleece pullover as a pillow I was brought back to see Dr. Snyder. This ended the day on a sour note. She was very direct and overall negative. Stating that there are a lot of other things they need to look at with me. Since I have had another donor transplant in my life (my stemcell transplant from when I had cancer) it was a concern to how those cells would react. The fact that I am a someone who has had cancer, even though it has been gone for 8 years is still a concern. A few other odd things about my blood counts brought some concern. These were things that have been like that for years since I beat cancer but none the less, she wants more testing done for sure if we go to the next level. This doctor seemed to only focus on the negative things that can happen. It seemed like I was pointing out the pros and she was just one big bag of cons. I guess she just wants me to be aware of what can happen. Problem is, I am all too aware of what can happen. Anything can happen from not making it through the surgery to restoring a quality to my life that is not possible while I have to use oxygen. I understand that I am a risky case but thats why I am at Duke. They do the risky transplants that other places wont take on. That may not be her true feelings and I may have read her wrong but I definitely got a negative vibe from her.
She is not the only one to make the decision. The whole group meets on Tuesdays to discuss all of our cases. I will be contacted by next Friday (Feb 19th) to be told if they want me to come down for the second round of testing. That will be a three day stay and will be more extensive. Heart catheterization, bronchoscopy, and stuff like that. Until then it is a wait.