Biopsy

We’ve been busy, hence the lack of posts. This is always a busy time of the year for us. Once home from our heativersary trips, it’s officially the holiday season and all that comes with that. For us, this means a lot of ministry work, too. Our last trip was a ministry trip to various native American reservations in New Mexico; we always leave on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Those trips are all work, so sorry, no time to make travel posts. After we returned from that trip, it was straight to work for Amanda, with the kids’ Christmas program to prep for.

We’re currently in Houston at the hospital, leaving right after the kids’ program last night and arriving at the hotel after 1 am. We had to be up early to get to the hospital for Amanda’s biopsy, too. It was a festive ride up, listening to Christmas music; jingle bells rang in the background the entire way. Amanda picked up a freshie for a fall scent in the Yukon. It was shaped like a little Debbie Christmas tree with little bells on the top. I’m not sure if I could have handled much more of them ringing; at least it kept me up! Amanda was up for a while but was out about midnight once the caffeine wore off. Later than I had expected, she’d had a busy weekend with work.

The hotel of choice is the one that connects directly to the hospital. We tried another one last trip for their lounge, but the medical rate at our regular one beat the other by $100 a night this time. More than enough to buy meals the lounge would have provided. We did park at the other hotel, though. It’s right across the street and vastly cheaper than the $50 a day valet parking where we are staying. Check-in was easy. I did that via the app and got a mobile key, so we just went straight to our room and crashed.

We got to the hospital early this morning to not even be taken back to a room almost 2 hours after our arrival time. Then, they looked at the schedule once all the preop prep was done, and we weren’t scheduled till 3 pm. We could have just driven up this morning instead of late last night. This is nothing new to us, though we’re used to this kind of crap with doctors’ offices and hospitals. Amanda is getting a good nap right now while I’m starving over here! She has been NPO since midnight; I typically don’t eat when she can’t, so we both starve. We usually intermittently fast and don’t eat breakfast, but we’ve been cheating a bit, so I planned to grab breakfast once she went back. 

Amanda has been in rejection for a couple of months now, maybe longer. Her symptoms all started back in late August after an event with someone that caused her to have an acute stress reaction. I think the team was possibly sidetracked by that event, thinking the high rate was from stress alone. However, in hindsight, it seems that the event caused a stress reaction and, in turn, led to the rejection we are facing today. All of her symptoms since correlate with rejection. If they had not known about the event, it seems they would have treated it differently. I think women are treated differently, even by a cardiac transplant team, when it comes to things like this. In the past, we’ve dealt with different problems like this. At the onset of things, we were sent to a physiatrist for the fainting, as you can imagine, that didn’t help that problem.

Once, an electrophysiologist said she had fantom rhythms just because her rate issues never happened in the doctor’s office! So, this is nothing new to us. 

Rejection isn’t understood well, so the correlation could be a coincidence. It sure doesn’t feel like it when she was trucking along great for nearly 4 years, then boom, rejection. The body rejecting an organ is complicated. I covered a good bit in my last post, so check that out for more details. Once we know more, I’ll provide details about everything. We see the doctor tomorrow morning; until then, we’re just speculating.

This is Amanda’s first biopsy in a couple of years. They transitioned to the genetic blood test to look for rejection. The cardiologist doesn’t like doing the caths because of Amanda’s prior problems with valves and veins from her previous procedures. Plus, her anatomy is all different, with the new vein structure above her heart that was taken from her donor as well. So, being that we are here and he wanted to do the biopsy, it shows it was most definitely needed.

For now, we’re just waiting; that seems to be the rhythm as of late. Waiting for answers, waiting for a fix, waiting on this biopsy, and right now, waiting for lunch!