Continued need due to extended stay

Our transplant Story Continues:

Glenn and I are reaching out to our families and friends to help us financially. Asking for help is a difficult thing for us to do. His insurance will help with lodging once he’s out of the hospital but won’t cover lodging costs for me while he’s in the hospital. We will have his insurance out of pocket to meet and the copay on his anti-rejection drugs, which at this time, we don’t even know what that will cost us. We must maintain everything at home and pay for food and lodging here in Rochester. If you can help us, great if you can’t, all prayers are appreciated.

March 15, 2022

We met with the Pulmonary transplant doctor today. He reviewed all the massive lab results and testing we had done the past ten days. He asked if Glenn was ready for some new lungs. He plans to bring Glenn’s case to the transplant team and recommend a transplant sooner rather than later. Verify the insurance is on board with paying, get him a hospital room, St Mary’s and admit him.

In June of last year, hubby started having some shortness of breath with a simple exercise; he went to see his doctor, who ordered pulmonary function testing. From those results, they diagnosed him with COPD and ordered some inhalers. One month later, he was no better from using the inhalers and was getting more shortness of breath. I sent a message to his doctor requesting they do further testing. They ordered a chest x-ray which showed that he had interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. We were then referred to a Pulmonologist at the beginning of August who ordered a chest CT to get a better look. He concurred with what the x-ray already told us. He told us there was no cure, and he would treat the symptoms and suggestive that he starts Pulmonary Rehab. I bought a pulse oximeter to keep track of his oxygen levels; 10 days later, we were back at the pulmonologist due to an increase in shortness of breath. They walked him a short distance and went and got an oxygen tank as his saturations were falling. We began our lives of having oxygen use. With what seemed like a rapid decline, I requested a referral to Mayo clinic. Our first visit was in November of last year. After multiple days of doctors and testing, they agreed with the original diagnosis. We would continue to have him use oxygen, 2 liters just sitting 4 liters when up moving around and at not with his CPAP. In mid-December, the pulmonary doctor suggested we start him on an anti-fibrotic medication. We also met with the lung transplant team to see if he was a candidate for a lung transplant. The doctor told us his lungs are sick enough and healthy enough to get the transplant. We have headed back to Mayo’s again in March for several days of appointments and testing to ensure he is healthy enough to do the surgery.