The Importance of a Driver's License

My final appointment at Shand's was scheduled the Monday before Thanksgiving, which initially sounded like pretty awesome timing. Then I realized a last minute plane ticket around this time... not so much. If we flew out of the major airport 2 hours away we would be looking at just over $600, if we used the local airport it would be over $1000. So Friday after work I ran in the front door grabbed the pets and the boy and immediately jumped in the car and headed to Florida. A couples days and 24 driving hours later I realized I didn't have my drivers license. 

Luckily I have an incredible landlord who went to my apartment at 6am, got my license out of my coat pocket, and faxed a copy directly to the hospital. There was one scary moment but it was accepted for each appointment through out the day. I probably would have had a complete break down if it hadn't. 

The actual appointments themselves went really smoothly. The day started out with blood work and a urine sample. The latter was a slightly difficult since I was required to fast with no water. Next was the ultra sound which was really cool because I could recognize most of the organs on the screen. The abdominal CT scan with the dye however was downright weird. When the dye hits your system you feel this heat all the way from the top of your head down until you feel like you are peeing yourself. After that I had one-on-one meetings with my surgeon, nephrologist, coordinator, advocate, and psychologist. They basically talked about our particular procedure, possible complications, and recovery and making sure that I understood everything. The advocate was my favorite meeting. She is basically my defender and way out if I feel like I need one. I don't, but it's nice to know one is there. I also found out that I will have an incision at my belly button, not my bikini line. I hear this one is slightly harder to recover from, but we'll see. The day ended with an EKG and a chest X-ray. 

Two weeks later I got a call from my coordinator letting me know I was officially approved. Not only that my approval was one of the most straight forward approval they have had. I take that as a sign of things to come :) 

Now I just have to wait for dates.