I realized that I haven't written in a while, so this may be a tad bit long.
Okay, so after the grueling appointments, the long waited results came in, and we finally got the call! Of course Hope and I were going back and forth that day, freaking each other out. Most of our texts consisted of "Did you hear anything?" and "No, you?" I did, however, make the mistake of calling her, which in turn got me in trouble because I freaked her out. But later that day, at exactly 4:30, (yes, I had to wait all day until 4:30 to get a call), I finally was told that I was approved! But naturally with my luck, it wasn't over. They told me that my blood pressure was just a tad bit high in the mornings, but it was fine in the afternoons, and I knew that it was because I had just been drained of blood and was freaking out if there would be anymore needles (which there were plenty more) so that must have spiked it.
Of course we have to wait about a week to get the blood pressure kit in, which I had to wear for 24 hours. Can I just say to anyone that has had to do that, you are my heroes. It would go off in the middle of class, so loud and obnoxious. At work, I was dealing with small babies and rowdy children, and of course I freaked that it would be raised with that stress. And then, I had to sleep with it, and it went off every 45 minutes. Have you tried sleeping through something that squeezes your arm so much that it begins to hurt. And I did that for exactly 24 hours. It was the worst. The wires hung from some bulky cellphone looking device that you couldn't hide. It would beep and scare you because it would do it at random moments throughout the day, and the noise was just loud and unusual.
But I was finally done with it and glad to bring it to FedEx. At that point, I realized that I can't change anything, so whatever the result, I should just take it with pride that I have gotten this far. And honestly, another scary thing is if I wouldn't be fully approved, it would be because something is wrong with me. So no pressure, right? Well, that was over a week ago. I received a call on Tuesday, which was 3 days ago from the transplant coordinator. I was in a movie at the time, but knowing that they could call any minute, I had my phone on me. And they called half way through, so I rushed out of the theater. She told me that she finally got the thing in the mail and before giving it to the doctor for further analysis, she glanced and said that everything appeared fine. That definitely relaxed me a bit (even though I made SURE to put little notes on it explaining why it may be a bit spiked haha). But of course, I had to wait until the doctor looked over it and gave me the official results. Three days later, today, I finally got a call. The doctor and a few physicians looked everything over and it all seemed fine! Which means, we go on to the transplant.
The transplant is set for February 21st, a Monday. It is exactly a month from today. We do have a pre-op appointment on the 15th, which means Jon, Hope, and I will be heading out on Valentine's Day (sorry, Blake!). But I know we are all excited. There is so much planning to do in a month. I have to find loose fitting clothing, Hope has to basically pack her house, and of course the rest of my family is coming in, so we are finding out all of the arrangements soon. I know at this point, I am just glad to have something official. For the longest time, it was the "unknown territory" where I always had to do another test and get another result. It's final, and I'm really prepared. I will most likely update for the pre-op appointment!