7/26 - Monday Interviews

Today was spent going through St. Luke's requirements for a Liver Transplant candidate.

Met and visited with Dr. Goss's surgical team partner, Christine O'Mahony. Good news is that they have not found anything so far that would exclude me from getting on the registry. Only issue they have alerted is the total sum size of the lesions > 9cm, (I am currently at 10.6cm). As this was explained to me previously this criteria doesn't exclude a transplant but may only yield what they term a orphan liver (a liver that other patients in line have rejected for one reason or another). Also, while waiting for a liver, the treatment could shrink the size of the lesions to within the <9cm criteria elevating my status and chances. I am starting two treatments, first a pill form of chemo therapy, and second I am being scheduled for the TACE procedure I blogged about previously. The secondary benefit of the TACE is that it will provide more imagery to identify the nature of the lesions while attacking them directly.

Met with the social worker who is interested in seeing that a patient(I) has(have) a support network around for 24 hour attendance the month following transplant surgery.

Met with the St. Luke Liver Transplant Coordinator assigned to my case. Wanda Nicks, was very informative about what to expect for leading up to a transplant surgery and for post-op care and recovery. Lot's of information which I will share as it comes around.

Met with the dietitian, Amy, who helped me understand and execute to the low sodium diet that I will be under for now and while I go through this process.

Summary:
Nothing excludes me from a LT option as of now, meaning that I must have passed all the tests from last Friday.

I have additional tests, pulmonary, bone density, and heart scheduled for Wednesday which will be the balance of the LT evaluation requirements.

There will be a review of my case on Friday by the council of LT doctors to make the transplant recommendation.

If approved I will be entered on the transplant list with a MELD score of 22 or higher. I will gain 3 points per month for each month I am on the list. They are currently transplanting to patients with MELD scores of 26. Thus per this schedule I could make the cut as soon as two months from now.

They are looking at scheduling the TACE procedure ASAP, later this week or early next week.