Two Lists Are Better Than One

In a few days we travel to Rochester, Minnesota.  Home of the Mayo Clinic.

Ah yes...THE Mayo Clinic.

Many would argue it is the best hospital in the country. Number 1 in a whole host of areas, and in the top 5 in just about everything else.  Most importantly to me, the cardiac specialties, and especially the transplant center, are rock solid.


With transplant centers in Arizona and Florida as well, Mayo performs more transplants than any other medical center in the world, and that includes all kinds of organs and tissues: lungs and livers and kidneys, even bone marrow.

And of course, the human heart....my favorite.   450 plus in the last 10 years or thereabouts, so I am pretty dang sure they know what they are doing.

And it's the way they practice the art of medicine that impresses me and so many others.  Mayo thrives on it's dedicated teamwork approach and unbelievable patient focus.  There is real, genuine sense of shared responsibility and accountability to their patients...coupled with the most advanced, cutting edge medical technology, knowledge, skill, and innovation the world has ever known.

I almost have to pinch myself here..some of the finest, most highly skilled, compassionate, and dedicated healthcare professionals...again...in the world...are gonna poke, and prod, and test, and retest me little ol' me...for the better part of three days.  Three days!! Yeah, I'm not exactly thrilled about that poking and prodding part...but it is what it is..and it will be worth it in the end.  Remember...a new heart...a new start. That's what it's all about!

So they will take that results obtained in those precious few days, combined with all the transplant workup I have already completed over these past 9 months or so, and hopefully come to the same conclusion that the doctors here in Iowa have reached, and that is I have a very sick heart, and that I am indeed a good candidate for transplant...not just here in Iowa...but at the Mayo Clinic as well.

I should mention, that it's perfectly acceptable, and often encouraged, to be on the list at more than one transplant center. It basically comes down to a numbers game.   The Mayo Clinic is in an area in which there is a much, much larger potential donor pool.  And they perform heart transplants more frequently than other centers.  Having a realistic chance at a donor heart few times a month, compared with a few times a year..could make all the difference to me.   Time isn't exactly on my side here.

And let me say too, that The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics are FANTASTIC... don't get me wrong.  And I'm not saying, nor are my doctors here saying, that there is anything wrong with my current hospital, Not at all.

I owe my life to that place.  Every surgery I have ever had has been there.  And virtually all my medical care, spanning 45 years has been there.    And if I get THE CALL to go the U of I for a new heart...I wouldn't hesitate one second.  It's an awesome, awesome hospital with AMAZING doctors it it's own right.  I know I would receive the very best of care, just as I always have.

But as luck would have it.  I live relatively close to not one, but two, world class transplant centers.  I am one lucky, lucky guy in that respect.  It would be beyond silly to not take advantage of both places.

Furthermore, it is especially important for tough or unusual cases like mine to be in the care of the best medicine has to offer.  The transplant itself, taking my unusually complex heart defect and blood vessel anatomy into account, takes an entire medical team, the surgeon most notably, that have proven to be, and will continue to be...well...a cut above the rest.

Not everyone would take my case.  Only the best, of the best, of the best, would even try.  

Like I said, it's a numbers game.  The University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics is in, you guess it... middle of Iowa.  Cornfields and hogs and pigs and chickens just a couple miles away.

But not many people. And that means not many potential donors.

Even the "Big City" of Des Moines, with around 600,000 inhabitants, pales in comparison to big populations centers like Chicago and Minneapolis.  And Mayo has access to those donors before Iowa.  It's just the way it works.  Indeed wait times here in Iowa can be longer than the national average...and unfortunately I don't really have the luxury of time right now.

And I am thrilled my doctors, especially my transplant surgeon, here in Iowa have encouraged me to get listed at Mayo.  They, along with their wonderful support staff,  did all the behind the scenes work to get all the appoints set up and sent off my previous test results weeks ago,   Bags are packed, GPS is set...and I'm rarin' to go.

To say I am humbled by all the work sooo many folks have done on behalf of me and my health, would be a huge understatement.   All I can say is thank you...for this opportunity.   Thank you. Thank you.  Thank you!

Finally just a word or two about the only sort of bummer here in this whole story, and that is that the fact that IF a heart becomes available there...in at Mayo...in Minnesota...I have to go there.  And stay there, for a few weeks beyond the actual transplant...at the very least.  To recover, and be constantly monitored for signs of rejection.   It will be my home away from home.  It stinks in a way to be away like that..it will be hard on me, and on Tammy, and the rest of my family, but again, I have to constantly remind myself that it will be worth it. For a new heart,,,a new start.

We'll let you know how it goes up there in the Minnesota, the Star of The North they claim.

Let's hope!

Thanks for continuing to be a part of this journey, and have a great day!