6 hours to Seattle

Not really, it was 3.5 hours to Seattle, but if I get on the waitlist, I'll be able to wait in Portland as long as I can get to Seattle in 6 hours when the time comes.

The visit itself contained few surprises. I met with the transplant coordinator and the social worker and we talked about the same kinds of things that I'd covered with the people in those roles at Providence and OHSU. They both seemed competent and helpful and it was a generally good experience.

The visit with the cardiologist was a little discouraging; I'm to repeat tests that I've gone through within the last month or two, and that means more trips to Seattle in the near future. In the very near future in fact, as I have another batch of appointments on Friday, including the infectious disease specialist, nutritionist, back with the coordinator, and some tests. There will be at least one more trip in the next week or two.

As always, I wouldn't be able to do any of this with out the support of my friends, whom I'm certain will be sick of long car rides with me if they aren't already.

In other news, I'm having a test tomorrow to try and rule out Crohn's (yay) and I've been in an out of clinic trying to get my internal defibrillator to do a better job of handling the recent uptick in irregular heart rhythms.

Oh, on fun consequence of all of these tests this week is that I'm essentially required to fast for most of the next 3 days. I will be making the most of my brief windows of exceptions.

Weight: 216.8, Symptoms: Fatigue, shortness of breath (worse than normal), dizziness, nausea

It's been a long wait, but there's more waiting to do

I haven't posted here for a while. It took a lot longer to hear from the University of Washington than I'd expected. But things are booked now for Monday 10/15 - and I'll be able to take care of the evaluation in just one day, so no long term stay in Seattle for now. My sisters came out from back east to visit. I don't think I'd realized how depressed I'd been until they got here. Having them around was amazing.

There were a couple of weeks there where I waasn't getting much sleep, despite the constant fatigue. That seems to be done with, now I just have to try to sleep less than 12 hours a night. In any case, I think I prefer oversleeping to the alternative.

I feel like I should have more to report here, but I'm sure I'll have plenty to say after Seattle. My symptoms are getting incrementally worse, but I've not had any serious episodes for a while.

Weight: 216.6, Symptoms: Mild constant nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, mild chest pain, dizziness, anxiety, depression