Hello Everyone,

I wanted to give you an update re: George's appointments at Vanderbilt on Monday. His 1st appointment was for a cystoscope to make sure that his bladder was still cancer-free. Good news--no problem! His CT scan showed that the blood clots in the portal vein that goes into the liver are breaking up. We were really concerned about this since this could take him off the transplant list if the clots had not responded to the medication. Dr. Raiford compared this to putting a new hot water heater in a house with no plumbing to connect it to.

We had a very interesting visit with Dr. Raiford, his liver doctor. We learned that there are still several people on the transplant list with his same blood type who are ahead of George; therefore, Dr. Raiford said there was no reason for us to stay in Owensboro waiting for the call. His nurse is going to call us when he is actually #1 on the list. We had been told that he was on the top of the list; however, with the MELD score going up and down, people's placement on the list is constantly changing. (George's MELD score this week was 20 --down from 23). We are planning to go back home now and wait for the call. When we finally get the call telling him that he is actually on the top of the list, we will then come back to Owensboro. This will give us time to get ready. When asked if we could be told exactly where he is on the list now, we were told that they were not allowed to give out that information. I suppose that is because the order can change daily.

We are looking forward to getting back to Kingsport and try to live a fairly normal life. Dr. Raiford assured George that it would be much better to prolong the transplant as long as he is feeling as well as he is now. After the transplant, it will be a day by day venture since the doctors will be reacting to whatever may arise. With George's immune system completely shut down, we were told that many, many things can come up.

Since he has the problem with his blood clotting and having to be on so much coumadin, George will be in the hospital 10-14 days assuming that there are no complications and then will have to stay in the Nashville area for an additional 2 weeks. We will then come back to Maria's for whatever time is appropriate. He will be making numerous trips to Vanderbilt for check-ups during this time.

George has felt much better for the past few weeks than he has felt in a long, long time. He has enjoyed doing odd jobs for Maria while we have been here and well as for me when we made quick trips back to Kingsport.

I will continue to keep you updated as things change. He will go for labs on May 23rd for his MELD score as Vanderbilt will be reporting it to the National Transplant Registry on May 28th.

Take care and continue to keep up with us on this site. You are all very special to both of us. Thanks for caring!

As always,

Sharon