Drum roll please...
When I came home last night from a weekend in Collingwood there was a message on my phone from the Transplant Coordinator at TGH, Michelle. She said they had the meeting about me (which I originally plotted to send a spy to) and had decided that it is too early for me to go on the active transplant list. Also, all my tests looked great and I would be a suitable candidate for transplant in the future. Two for two!

A Different Type of Learning…
Today was my first day of school, but I spent it at St. Mikes instead. I was really tempted to cancel my CF clinic appointment but as one CFer reminded me, your health comes first. Again, I had to fast for an ultrasound (my last official transplant assessment test), which I wasn’t overly excited about. Turns out the lady who was supposed to do my ultrasound called in sick today, so my fast was in vain.

Funny enough, without even trying I gained weight since my last clinic appointment (which was one month ago) but sadly my PFTS dropped from .87 L to .76 L, which was a surprise to me seeing as I have been working out more than usual and feeling pretty good!

Alas, I have been stripped of my one-month appointment privileges and will have to go back in two weeks instead.

Getting Shot
One bonus of going for my tx assessment before I am sick enough to go on the list is that I can get all my lovely shots out of the way. Since your immune system is pretty much non-existent after tx, you need to get them all done before you go on the list. So today I got my first round of the Twinrix shot (for Hepatitis A+B) and the Gardasil shot (for HPV). I go back next week for my second round of the Twinrix shot—it is quite time consuming!

Here is my schedule:
Twinrix: Today, 7 days, 21 days and 6 months (4 shots total)
Gardasil: Today, 2 months, 6 months (3 shots total)
Varicella: 2 months apart (2 shots total)

I also found out that I have never had the chicken pox (which I knew, but they wanted to make sure). I have definitely been exposed to it—my best friend in elementary school had the chicken pox—but I somehow never got it, so I have to get the “chicken pox” shot/Varicella shot.

What else did I learn today? My blood type is O+, which can give to A+, B+ and AB+ (not that I am even big enough to give blood) and is also the most common blood type. Good news there.


Got Mono?
Where the good news does not continue is that I have never had the Epstein-Barr Virus which causes something you may be familiar with: mononucleosis. I am told this is not very common since most people have been infected with Epstein-Barr by adulthood (even if they have shown no symptoms). I have certainly been exposed to mono as well, but have mysteriously never got it (my sister even had it for months when we were sharing a bathroom… though admittedly I made her change to the basement bathroom. Mistake?) So why, you ask, is this a bad thing? Well, Epstein-Barr—while inconvenient—actually provides you some immunity from post-transplant lymphoma. So I guess I’ll try hanging out at the local high school to pick up some of that ever-popular mono.

The verdict is in and I feel pretty good about it, so tomorrow it is on to the next chapter and back to the books!