Over the past two weeks, I’ve made several calls to both my transplant coordinator and transplant assistant at the UCLA transplant center. The transplant coordinator called me back this morning and answered a lot of questions. I was put on transplant hold after my heart surgery and I wanted to know how to remove the hold. Basically, I can be cleared for transplant again once I complete the cardiac rehabilitation program. I signed up for the one at St. Joseph Hospital and my orientation is on January 16th. I believe the program is 24 days and usually people go 3x per week. If I can keep that up, then I can be done in eight weeks or by mid March. I also need to switch blood thinner medications and get clearance from my cardiologist. With all that, UCLA is targeting to release my hold on April 1st. At that time, they will ask me to see one of their cardiologists to review all my medical files. After that, I think we can finally plan on scheduling the live donor transplant surgery. I spoke to my donor today; he is still gung-ho on proceeding with everything and will try to complete his tests by early March.
This is easily the highest item on my anxiety list. I was afraid that I would be on hold for more than a year but six months seem bearable. I think I still need to get a fistula since there are always delays and everyone says i need to stop using the central line catheter ASAP.
Life with chronic diseases 