Portland, Redeaux

So.

I'm back and ready to talk more about Portland, I think.

The rant in me seem to have died down some. so maybe now I will be easy to understand. Shall we take a shot at it?

John and I packed up Monday, kissed the kids goodbye and drove three hours to Portland. We arrived at the hotel on time, rather rested and please to see our room was so nice!

John brought all the dialysis equipment up to the room on a Bellman's Cart (and what a load it is, even for two nights) and we got settled in..

Dinner was at one of our (previously) favorite restaurant in Portland - Buster's BBQ. We had looked forward to it from the time we knew we were going to be in Portland! The service was great - the food, not so much ...

Tuesday morning, we had to be across town at OHSU by 8am. That began a full day of testing, running between  buildings and campuses. They do have a great thing there where you can park with the valet for free, all day, and they even brought us a wheelchair. That came in handy due to the sheer size of the OHSU campus. Even though it is situated on top of a hill, thy cram a ton of buildings onto the hilltop:

OHSU Hospital

Physician's Pavilion

Doernbecker's Children's Hospital

The Shriner's Hospital for Children

Dental School

plus various Halls for this, that and the other thing ....

Tuesday we had blood drawn (34 vials, I kid you not), then an EKG, chest x-ray and an abdominal ultrasound.

After that was a 2 hour interview with the Social Worker.

And then? We were down for the day. It was back to the hotel where we called the kids before falling into bed and sleeping for a few hours.

DInner was at another place we had planned on - Panda Buffet. All the lousy CHinese food you can eat for cheap! The food was lousy, the company was great! It did not disapoint.

Wednesday morning found us back up and on the road again and back at OHSU for the mother of all boring classes. Geesh. It was the transplant class, but we had been through the process already, so there wasn't too much new info for us. John had to kick me twice to keep me awake ... oops!

When that was over, we grabbed a yummy luck at the hospital's Cafe, then went to the appointment with the dietitian. Then on the the transplant team appt.

Here is where things went south.

We met with a Visiting Resident MD, Jennifer< for an hour. She quizzed me backwards and forwards on any health issues.

I had been sitting in a wheelchair for two days, in a car for another day so by now the pain levels in my legs had reached optimal proportions.

After we talked with Jennifer, we sat in the room for about 45 minutes while she "conferred" with the team.

At the end of the 45 minutes, another MD walk in, says, 'Your phosphorous is too high. And you need to be able to walk after surgery'. And left.

2 days for 2 minutes.

I. was. furious.

We had no chance to ask questions or anything.

Done. Thank you. See you.

We will send our final recommendation to your DR in a couple of weeks.

So, we got in the car, and came home. I slept all the way home, for the most part.

And now? we wait.

And consider out options. We had originally wanted to work with Legacy Emmanual, and heard great things about them. Then our insurance  changed, and OHSU was the hospital of choice.

Well, we lose that insurance come December 31, so I'm wondering if going back to Legacy is an option.

We will talk to the Dr. next week about everything and get his recommendation.

And that, as they say, is the rest of the story, folks.

Stay tuned for more updates next week!