The donor journey begins...

Finally received all the paper work necessary to start down the road of donating my liver to dad. Here's what I have to do asap:

1) I have to read through an information booklet.

2) I need to fill out a medical history questionnaire.

3) I have to fax/email proof of my blood type (from an official lab result) along with the filled out questionnaire to the transplant coordinator in Toronto.

Once I've done the above, the transplant coordinator will confirm that my dad is on the transplant list (which we already know he is!). If my dad wasn't on the list, apparently the transplant coordinator has the power to inform the transplant assessment team that Brian has a potential donor. In this case, the assessment team would have sped up the assessment process, getting him on the list a bit quicker, if possible.

I feel so frustrated/betrayed that I was told time and time again by different people (including Ottawa doctors) that I'm not supposed to call Toronto until my dad is confirmed. It was NOT TRUE! I could have called at any point. Heck - my dad could be in surgery by now if I had called back in June when this all started going down.

Once my questionnaire is approved and my dad is confirmed as an eligible recipient, my assessments will begin. The assessments must be done in Toronto. And, because I'm an out of town patient, the team will actually book three consecutive days of tests so that in a single visit to Toronto, I'll be able to have 90% of my assessments complete.

Once the 90% of the assessments are complete, a surgery date is booked. The remaining 10% of my assessment is done closer to the surgery date.

My nerves are going crazy. Its so hard to explain the mixed emotions. As I mentioned before - I hate needles, tests, blah blah blah... but at the same time, I'm feeling so excited that my dad is going to have a brand new liver soon! It feels like Christmas but then finding out that you have to get stitches up your nose and your toe nail bent backwards.