Now We Hurry Up And Wait

We just got home from our appointments with Dr. Edelman, my Lung Transplant Pulmonologist; the nutritionist; and Dr. Mulligan, the Lung Transplant Surgeon.  All my tests from the past few weeks look fine, no startling findings that would render me ineligible for a double lung transplant.  Now Dr. Edelman will present my case to the UW Transplantation Committee either this Wednesday or next Wednesday, depending on the Committee's schedule and if all my results and reports are ready.  The Committee votes to put me on the list or not (everyone is pretty certain they will say yes) then they send all my information to UNOS, the national organization that spits out everyone in the country's Lung Allocation Scores (LAS).  That ranking, which takes about a week to get back after UW sends them the info, then determines where I fall on UW's waiting list. 

And then we wait.  Average weight time for a lung transplant is about 6 months but the variables and random-ness of everything is just crazy -- matches between donors and recipients are made not only by LAS, but by matching blood type, similar size, geography (the lungs have to be within a 4-6 hour radius of Seattle), different antigens and virus exposure, and on and on.

There are other interesting tidbits we learned but I am exhausted and must rest my puffy feet.  More thoughts later!