Second Call About Kidney Availability

On the evening of Sunday, May 6, Ramiro and I were watching TV after a busy day of church, shopping, and gardening. The house was really clean and tidy because Ramiro had done an outstanding job of getting things ready for our guests last Friday for the dinners for 8. I had a premonition that I'd get a call about a kidney, so I went about and did some things to get ready in case we had to leave in a hurry. I filled out a card for the post office to hold our mail; I wrote a note to our neighbor about picking up our newspapers/mail. I gathered up some personal belongings that I will need at the hospital. Then I sat down to watch TV, cell phone close to me. Sure enough, I got a call from Angie Wilson, transplant coordinator from Baylor Dallas, asking about my availability for transplant. She told me first not to get too excited, because she said the chances were rather high that the kidney would not be given to them because there were two other patients (in other hospitals) that were ahead of me. The donor was a 44 year old woman with no health issues, so this would be a standard criteria kidney. She asked if I was on antibiotics for any reason (no); whether I was running a fever (no); when was my last dialysis (not on dialysis yet); and could I be in Dallas the next day (yes). She said that the donor's surgery time was not yet known, so she was not sure when things would happen, and guessed that it would be early Monday morning before she would know whether Baylor was getting one of the kidneys. She left a phone number where I could reach her if I had not heard from her by next morning. I know that I would accept the kidney if it became available, so we immediately went into action. Ramiro went next door and told our neighbor that we might be going out of town early the next morning, and asked him to pick up mail and newspapers. I took a shower and packed everything I would need--one small bag for the hospital, one larger bag for the month or so that we would need to stay in Dallas. Ramiro finished his packing and got things ready for Preston so he could be dropped off at the kennel. If we could, we'd catch Grace in the morning and take her to the kennel, too, or she will have to stay home alone for a week or so, and then we'd make arrangements for someone to come and feed her/change her litter box. We went to bed around 11 p.m. It was stormy that night, with strong winds and lightning/thunder, which made Preston bark wildly through the night. The barking, the storm, and waiting for the phone to ring all added up to a fitful sleep. By 7 a.m., I knew we were not getting a call, but I called Angie anyway. Of course I got the answering service; the woman told me that I had called the wrong number, that she'd have to look up the account information, and twice asked me for my name and phone number. Finally she told me that she'd have someone call me. Half an hour later I got a call back from a Dr. Cooper, who simply identified herself as such. I said hello and waited for her to update me, but then she said "do you have a question?" So I explained that I had called for Angie, and told her why. She said "I know NOTHING about that" in a very clipped voice, as if she resented being on the phone with me. But she did say that she would ask Angie to give me a call back. Angie called back a half hour later, and said that as predicted, Baylor had not gotten the kidney, so it was a no go for me. Then she asked why I had asked to speak to a doctor. I told her that I had no idea why Dr. Cooper had called me, since I had called and asked for Angie. Angie blamed it on the answering service. I told Angie what Dr. Cooper had said about knowing nothing about my situation, and told her that the conversation had not given me a warm fuzzy feeling. She defended Dr. Cooper, saying that if the transplant were going forward, that Dr. Cooper would have known everything and would have been able to update me. Oh well, so it goes. I just hope that when the time comes, I don't get the runaround either from the answering service or from whoever calls me back. It will be stressful enough without having that kind of rigamarole to deal with. So it's back to waiting. It's interesting that I had a premonition about a call. I intend to listen to my intuition about this.