Two very dear friends.

With this blog posting, I would like to mention two medical professionals that have been very kind to me and have put a friendly and personal touch on my visits to the University of Washington Medical Center. Annie works as a phlebotomist and draws blood for all the tests that I need to have. I have mentioned in an earlier posting that the amount of blood I have given can easily be measured in gallons over the past two and a half years. The phlebotomist receives an order from the doctor you will be seeing that day. There are many different tests that can be done with a patient’s blood to see how they are doing. By looking at a blood sample my doctors can tell the health of my new heart, kidneys, liver, if I have the proper electrolyte balance and if my body is being challenged by an infection. It is amazing that all this information can be shown in less than 30 minutes and available for the doctor and patient for the clinic visit. Annie always collects what the doctors are requesting (I have been poked three times in the same day because someone read the directions wrong). Annie and I discovered we were born on the same day, same year. She calls me her twin brother and she is my twin sister. Now when you see us standing next to each other, we do not look like brother and sister. I usually get a blank stare at the front desk when I ask if my twin sister Annie is working today. We were born half the world away from each other. Her ethnicity is Asian and I am Caucasian. But none the less we are brother and sister. When I am due for a blood draw, I ask for her to assist. Then we get an opportunity to get caught up on all the stuff that we are doing. She is a very enjoyable person and a lot of fun.

The second person I will mention here is Tamara, a registered nurse who works in the cardiology department. Her role is follow up on over 100 heart transplant patients. Because my heart transplant has been one phase of my ongoing treatment, she has been following my progress with my stem cell transplantation at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. She is knowledgeable of my medical history (no small task) and my unique response to medications and treatments. Not only does she understand my medical condition, she is an encouraging and pleasant individual. We are usually on the phone to each other several times a month to keep my cardiologist apprised of my situation and how things are going. She calls me ‘Special” but I think “pain in the neck” is more appropriate with all the health things I have going on. This past week I was diagnosed with another bout of pneumonia. When I called her to tell her what was going on, she said she would do whatever necessary to I get me to Seattle for my treatment. Sometimes it is no small tasks to open doors to have this happen. I knew she would do her magic. That afternoon I was in Seattle being treated by several teams of doctors.

Both Annie and Tamara have become a part of our family. For as many trips we have made to the UW hospital, we have gotten to know a lot of people (the staff on the 5th floor of the hospital know me by my first name). I could speak of dozens of great people. But I want to focus on these two as they bring a human touch to a process that can be very intimidating.

Since my last posting we have been in touch with the Amyloid Treatment and Research Program at Boston University School of Medicine about a clinical trial. I found out that my heart transplant disqualifies me from several of the trials they are performing. There are a few trials that it does not matter if you have previous health issues, including a transplanted heart. I am also looking around the country to see if there are other institutions that may be better for us. The nice thing about Boston is that they have a lot of experience with my disease. The last two months I have been fighting walking pneumonia. I have been lucky that a fever tips me off that I need to call the doctor. Pneumonia can be dangerous for folks going through organ transplant and cancer treatment who have a lowered immune response as I do. Things are slowly improving, but I find I need to remain vigilant with washing my hands and staying clear of situations where I can pick up something.