I decided to take some time before writing the reports for the second half of my lung transplant screening tests. This allowed me to recover and digest everything and would hopefully be able to write more clearly.

Day 3:

This was the biggest test so far, the heart catherization. A thin tube is placed into a vein in your leg near your groin, and it is fished up towards your heart. When it gets there a bunch of data can be collected. For my case it can be a regular vein, for some people they have to check the artery which is a more invasive procedure.

I was not allowed to eat or drink after midnight the night before. I arrived at 8:30am and checked in with the receptionist. Shortly after I was brought back and given a locker to store my belongings and given a pair of hospital approved extra large socks and a hospital gown.

There is nothing quite as fun as wearing a hospital gown. I don't know if its the fact that it's one size fits all, or that it's near impossible to tie the straps yourself, or the fact that your backside is left hangin out, but combined with the extremely cold room temperatures at hospitals, there is really nothing enjoyable about wearing one.

I was then placed in the pre-procedure area in the cardiac center. I was given an IV and my blood sugar level was taken. Sensors were placed on my chest and my hips, a finger monitor was placed to watch my pulse and oxygen levels. I was then set to wait about an hour. I signed release forms for the procedure. Nerve damage is like 1 in 10,000, if there's a problem they want to be able to give you blood, which has a rick of infection of about 1 in 50,000. Now I don't know where those numbers came from they seemed high to me. With all the precautions taken these days with blood drives and whatnot, I would have thought there would be a lot less than 1 in 50,000. Anyways, I signed the papers and was set to go. They shaved a small area of my legs (inner thigh). They did both legs becuase it's up to the doctor doing the procedure to decide which leg has a better vein to access.

My parents came in and we watched Super Password and The Price is Right on tv, (Game Show Network rules), finally it was my turn. I got wheeled in and was moved onto the table. They rolled my on to it, as they didn't want me to move myself because that would cause a spike in my oxygen levels. They wanted a reading while I was at rest. After I was all set they added a small amount of drug to my IV to relax me.

I was awake the entire time, and after about 5 minutes I got the "drunk" feeling. It's hard to explain if you've never had it but, the best I can describe is when you're drunk and you are lucid but you are at the point where you try to focus at an object and it feels like your eyes are rolling in little circles. It's a little bit drunker than being buzzed, and a little less then not having control of yourself.

I was then given several injections of a local anesthestic in my right leg. This felt like a mild bee sting, it only stung for a second then I couldn't feel anything. For the next 10-20 minutes the team of 3, (1 doctor and 2 assistants) manuevered the line into position then took a reading of the pressures in my heart. Now, I never felt the needle or that part, but I did feel the pressure they put on my leg to get to the vein. It mostly felt like I had a bruise on my leg they they were pushing on. It wasn't so much pain as it was mild discomfort. It was only about 10-20 minutes for the entire procedure once they numbed up my leg. When they finished I was taped up, rolled back to the bed with wheels and rolled back to the recovery room.

At this point I was laying completely flat and was told to not sit up until they said I could. They had an assistant come in and remove the tube from my leg. He then applied pressure to my leg for a good 10 or 15 minutes to make sure I would not bleed. At this point my leg was much more sore as the local anesthestic had worn off. I had started to get a little bit of swelling at this point as well.

Finally, about a half hour later I was told I could sit up. I was given a deli sandwich some chips and apple juice. I was pretty sleepy at this point so I napped on and off the next hour or two. A nurse came and had me walk around the cardiac ward to make sure my leg was fine. The took out the IV and I got dressed and was out of there by about 1:30 (I think, I don't remember the actual time)

I walked with a small limp that day, not because I had to, but because walking that way was more comfortable. We found Ted Drewes's frozen custard and I had a huge chocolate malt which was very tasty. Ted Drewes is big in St Louis and they had a line of about 20-30 people when we arrived, very impressive! After a trip to the drug store and driving around for fun and seeing St Louis, I had become quite hungry (I'm not a fan of deli sandwiches like the hospital gave me) so I used the $159 Nav-cam GPS I got from woot.com and hacked to use TomTom 6 software to search out food. I found an Olive Garden that was close and we went and had lunch. We got back to the hotel around 5:30 or so. I was quite tired and took a nice long nap. I was advised to take ibprofin every 6 hours, and I did. I slept quite well, and got a great night of sleep that night as well.

Day 4 didn't start until 10am for me and there would be no tests, just meetings with finance and social workers. We had breakfast at the same cafe we did on Monday. It was once again quite tasty. (I'm a sucker for pancakes)


At 10am we met with a socal worker in the lung transplant center. First she met with just me, then later she brought in my parents. This was a psychological evaluatation more than anything. She didn't have anything new that I hadn't read on my own already. This is a good thing as I hate last minute surprises. We discussed how post transplant life included many precautions, such as avoiding people that are sick, taking immunosupressant medication every 12 hours for the rest of your life, and various things. The meeting went very well.


At 11am we met with Cena the financial consultant. She had a report from our insurance and it was her job to make sure all the paperwork was correct and that my doctors at home had make the corrent referals to this hospital, and that my insurance considered this hospital "in network". Everything seemed to be in order and Cena was extremely knowledgeable about medical billing and insurance and whatnot. I got the feeling that she understands both the patient and the hospitals side of the situation and she deals with the insurance companies all day long. I feel like if I had an issue, she would be able to get ahold of the right people to get answers and correct information.

At noon, I met my "mentor" Scott. Scott had Cystic Fibrosis as I do, he had a lung transplant 3 and 1/2 years ago and is doing great. Scott and my CF stories seems to mirror almost exactly, we both had very mild simptoms as kids, and it wasn't until late high school and college did the effects of the Cystic Fibrosis start to cause serious problems to our everyday life. We talked about being on the waiting list, the surgery, living after the transplant and lots of things. He showed pictures of his surgery which were very cool. His mentor told him to bring a disposable camera when he got "the call" that a match was found and he was getting new lungs. He did and a nurse took pictures of the old lungs, and the new lungs and various times in the procedure. While quite graphic, it was very cool and fascinating! I made a mental note to have a cameras waiting for when I get my transplant.

While I was meeting with Scott, my doctors and everyone else I had met with during the week had a meeting to determine my overall evaluatation.

When they finished they came and got me, I said goodbye to Scott and thanked him for his tips and sharing his experiece with me. Scott mentors twice a month on a volunteer basis, and it really is wonderful to talk to someone who has literally been in your shoes.

I met with Stacie from the transplant center and Dr Hachem who I met with earlier in the week. After all the tests were completed, they decided that the next step for my treatment would be to begin a pulmonary rehibilitation program while I waited to for lungs to be available for a transplant.

I would be listed as soon as I secured local housing and moved to the St Louis area. And attended a 2 day meeting with the surgical staff and the social workers with my "caregiver" who would be my parents. Dr Hachem wanted to get me in St Louis and listed for a transplant "sooner rather than later" which means around a month or so.

He ordered another series of blood tests as I left the hospital, mostly to have another set of data to confirm the previous results. My veins were stubborn and I had to get stuck 3 times to provide enough blood for the 9 tubes they required.


After I finished with the blood work, we called some places looking for housing. We found a place called Almost Home, that is run by a lady who rents fully furnished duplexes to people waiting for transplants. We called her and she was able to meet with us at 4pm that day. We meet her at her house which is on the same block as many of her rental units. They are in the neighborhood known as "The Hill" which is known for it's excellent italian food. The woman is wonderful, she doesn't require leases, is willing to bill to the exact day, she'll provide refunds if you go home early, if you get a call at 3am that they have lungs for you, she'll drive you to the hospital, she's completely awesome. She has been doing this for 8 years after her husband had a surgery and she realised there was a need for temporary housing. I think she has 8-10 units and they are always full. It's people like this that gives me faith in humans.

A unit should be available in mid August. We paid a deposit and secured the apartment. That's when I'll be headed down to wait for new lungs. There's no telling how long I'll wait, but after the surgery I have to say in St Louis for 3 months. I'm hoping the whole thing can be done in less than 6 months. We'll see. Talk about a total life shift. I really like St. Louis, it's a very nice city, I think I'll quite enjoy it, (not enough to abandon the cubs for the cardinals, but I'll try to catch a ballgame or two.

As a bonus there's a Sonic like 4 blocks from my apartment. We stopped to get there before driving back 5 hours to Illinois. It was first time at a Sonic and I found it quite good :)

I'm really excited to begin the whole process, and I'm thrilled at the idea of having new lungs and being able to do everything I used to love again.

So this story is to be continued, but the next chapter has good things ahead, and I'll be blogging it the whole way.

Thanks to everyone that emailed me after my last posts, I'm doing awesome and I know that reading other peoples' transplant experiences were helpful for me, and so I'm happy to write mine so that it might help someone else.

Boy was my kitty happy to see me when I got home!

--Chris Falco