Stamp of Approval!!

This is the most exciting post I have done to date on this blog.  Today at 5:00 p.m. Elise called me from Froedtert Hospital to tell me that the transplant team met today and approved our case.  The transplant date can now be set!!  What a call to receive!  Wow -- I can't even begin to put it into words.  Relief, joy, excitement, accomplishment....all the feelings came over me at once.  I was at Isaiah's baseball game at the time of the call.  The teams were just warming up so Mike was on the field helping coach -- I had to wait a bit to tell him.  So I called my parents first.  Then I called Lonnie and Ginger.  Ginger answered and I told her I was calling to ask her husband out on a date -- I told her I thought maybe we could go to the hospital for our date.  She said, "did you get approved?"  I replied "yes I did!"  She told Lonnie and he yelled, "Really??"  We talked a bit longer and then I said, "so is Lonnie happy?"  Ginger said, "well he has tears in his eyes!"  I didn't know whether to cry or laugh at that thought :-)

As you have probably gathered from the above paragraph the cystoscopy testing I had done this morning turned out just fine.  In fact, the urologist says my bladder is "shockingly normal"!  Imagine that.  He was quite an entertaining doctor and was a real treat to see.  He is from the Bahamas and at one point during the exam he was happy to hear something his assistant told him -- so he said, "well, HAPPY BANANAS!!"  I may adopt that phrase.  I have never heard that one before -- maybe that is a Bahamian saying?

So come Monday Elise will call me back and we can talk about dates for the surgery.  She said the biggest challenge is being sure both transplant surgeons are available at the same time.  Lonnie and I will each have our own surgeon since they will have to do both surgeries simultaneously.  It will likely be on a Tuesday or Wednesday in early to mid-July.  We have a trip planned to see my dear friend Amiee and her kids Abby and Blake, Amiee's sister Kelly and family, and their parents in southern Illinois for the Fourth of July and I do not want to miss that!  It will be our last hurrah for awhile!

I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughts, prayers, and kind words.  They are very humbling and inspiring to me.  I never dreamt that I would have the opportunity in my life to give such a gift.  I am in awe of modern medicine and what we can give to others.  I am also so very aware of the hand of God in every step of this process.  His plan is so much greater than any of us can ever comprehend.