Reality check

Crazy day. We got to our first appointment at 9am. We met with one of the living donor surgeons.

The purpose of the appointment was to inform Chelsea and I with all blunt details of the procedure. By the end of that appointment, Chel and I both agreed that reality had finally set in. This is no longer a cut and dry decision (to donate my liver). There are so many considerations. For example - in the history of the world, this surgery (liver resection) has only been done in the last 20 years. That means that there's no definitive long-term information about the affects of this operation. What if I have half my liver removed - and 40 years down the road I develop some uncommon liver condition because of the resection? That's just one example of the many issues that were discussed. We left that appointment with a little less of a skip in our step... but still ready to continue with the assessments.

Just before we stepped out, I was given a new schedule of assessments for the day - including a new test... a heart echo.

The heart echo kind of surprised me... but not... I've always thought I had some sort of heart issue. Nothing in particular... its just been a feeling I had. I suspected that the echo was because the ECG showed something abnormal.

The echo was kind of fun. Great technician. He told me he thought I had a 'heart murmur'. But then he said 90% of people have a murmur. So no biggy.

After the echo, I had an appointment with a general practitioner. She was awesome! Super nice. Lots more reality checks. Great at answering our questions.

Last appointment was the MRI. It wasn't as bad as the CT. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being a CT and 0 being riding a bike, it was 3.7. I was strapped to a tray and slid into a super small cylindrical tube. I actually had my eyes closed for the entire procedure as I was afraid that if I saw how tiny the space was, I would become claustrophobic and panic. It lasted about 40min long. But no IV. Awesome.

All in all, it felt like a huge day. 2 huge appointments with doctors, an enlightening echo, and a 40min MRI. If I could sum it up in one word, its reality.

I'm not chickening out... but reality has set in.