Saturday, January 13, 2007
The new lung transplant statistics are out, so you can scamper on over here and take a look at how UCLA does compared to the rest of the country for the period ending June 2006. You can use the drop down window to look at all sorts of interesting statistics. My favorite is number six, [...]
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Jim’s lung allocation score is 50.32, which is up there with the folks who are most sick on the transplant list at UCLA. As of December 29, 2006 there were three people on the list at UCLA with type O blood who had an LAS of 50 or above. Hopefully they are shorter than Jim [...]
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Today Jim’s transplant was approved by his new health insurance company, Aetna. He was moved from Blue Shield to Aetna at the first of the year and thus far the change has been painless. Jim also had an appointment with UCLA today, but that was not exactly without pain. He found out that his donor [...]
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Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Jay just called with the results from Jim’s echo cardiogram. Jim’s heart is still in good shape. We were concerned that something was up when they scheduled the test so suddenly, but as it turns out it’s all good news. If his heart had worsened it would have improved his position on the waiting list, [...]
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Jim didn’t hear anything from the transplant team on Thursday, so on Friday he called his transplant coordinator, Jay, and found out that the meeting had been canceled. Jim is still on the waiting list and will hopefully find out more after the next transplant team meeting on Thursday. Jay has been proactive in trying [...]
Thursday, November 2, 2006
The UCLA lung transplant team meets every Thursday, so we are hoping to hear something from them today. Jim went to see his pulmonologist, Dr. Kahan, yesterday for a checkup. Dr. Kahan gave him his flu shot and did a blood workup. Dr. Kahan also tried calling UCLA but couldn’t get through to Dr. Lynch. [...]
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Jim called UCLA on Friday and again this morning, but he is still waiting for some sort of resolution. If anyone on the transplant team at UCLA is reading this we’d love to hear from you. It is not cool to leave us hanging like this, so give Jim a call even if it is [...]
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Well there’s a surprise. Jim talked to his transplant coordinator, Jay, who said that they had not heard from Dr. Ardehali yet. Kelly is in town visiting, so we are off to eat sushi in a few minutes. Will this be Jim’s last sushi?
Thursday, October 26, 2006
This is not a call to action, so hold your calls and e-mails to UCLA until we have more information. Jim is at UCLA right now with his dad. He had an x-ray this morning and is waiting to have a CT scan as I type this. Dr. Lynch just told Jim that the transplant [...]
Word on the street has it that Jim’s potential donor pool has just expanded. He heard today from his pulmonologist, Dr. Kahan, that UCLA has lowered the minimum height to six feet. Previously it had been six feet three inches. I’ve visited a number of websites to look at the statistics, but I am now [...]
Thursday, December 22, 2005
The transplant committee approved a bilateral (double) lung transplant for Jim this morning. So the next step is waiting for the insurance company to approve the transpant. After that UCLA will activate him on the waiting list. We’re not sure how long it will take the insurance company to give the okay. It’s a relief [...]
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Thursday, December 22, 2005
We’ve called and left messages. Now we’re just waiting to hear back from someone at UCLA. My nerves are frayed, so I’m thinking that some of you might have frayed nerves. Rather than post nothing, I thought I would let you know that we’ll post the minute we know anything.
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Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Jim just got word from UCLA that his test results are back and he is malignancy free. His case will be presented to the transplant committee on Thursday for a vote. We are exceedingly hopeful this morning.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Jim has a PET/CT scan scheduled for Friday at noon. If the oncologist gives him the green light the transplant committee could put him on the list after its Thursday December 22 meeting. Now that would be quite a Christmas present.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
The oncologist, Dr. Schiller, examined Jim and asked him lots of questions about his treatment for ALL at Dana Farber in 1997. Then he said that Jim needs a bone marrow biopsy and a full body PET/CT scan to hunt for cancer. We have no reason to believe that they’ll find any cancer, so we’re [...]
