The short, but fabulous meeting, with the surgeon today deserves it's very own blog. Clay needed to go to x-ray prior to the meeting, which we have come to understand is just normal standard procedures for every time we walk into the hospital.
Once we're in the exam room, all vitals taken, nurse has left, that marvelous surgeon strides in (and strides he should!) to deliver some of the best news to fall upon our ears since we received the call there were lungs available for Clay.
Dr. Mulligan asked if Clay isn't absolutely thrilled with his x-rays? Clay responded that he hadn't seen them, to which Dr. Mulligan then filled in the blanks.
His lung is in the exact position it should be, fully inflated, his breathing stats show Clay has 72% breathing capacity (compared with someone with no breathing issues at 100%), and way above the normal expectation for someone with his disease after transplant of 55%!! Plus, he said that Clay can expect some increase yet!! OMG!!
Holy cow! We had not heard those stats before. If we had been told that after a transplant we could expect a 55% breathing capacity with new lung/s we don't remember it. Not that it would have made any difference even if we had. And prior to surgery, Clay had less than 25% breathing capacity!
Dr. Mulligan stated that Clay has the exact "ideal" outcomes that he wishes the team could get all the time. He went on to say that if they could they would be in Stockholm with tophats/tails receiving awards (Nobel). How often does one hear that from their surgeon?
Dr. Mulligan also discussed Clay's beautiful new lung, reiterating that it is fully inflated, and went on to say that it fits his chest "perfectly" and if he had had a double lung transplant (as Clay had envisioned) the outcome would have been that Clay would not have been able to fully expand both lungs. Which is necessary for the best long-term outcome.
After Clay's surgery Mulligan spoke to me in the surgery waiting room and had explained the reason Clay received the left lung (as opposed to the right) was due to during the whole process in 2001 when Clay was having the biopsy, followed by numerous complications, the surgeons at the time finally decided to glue (yes, glue) his lung to the lung cavity. Right or wrong, it did the trick. It also meant that taking that lung out was pretty impossible in the future. But then, his surgeon at the time really felt that Clay was doomed and wouldn't live long anyway.
I should also state here that Clay's chest was again glued shut after the transplant. Which is probably different than the new lung being glued to the chest wall, but then, ten years has passed too. Doesn't matter what the previous hospital may have done wrong, Clay is alive and absolutely well today and nothing else matters.
Mulligan's intern (UWMC being a teaching hospital) then took out the sutures left from where Clay's chest tubes had been and removed all steristrips over the incision. As Mulligan was leaving he said to drop him a postcard from time to time to let him know what Clay does in the future, said he likes to hear the good news too.
Is that awesome or what?
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