Tuesday May 8th, 2012

Any day that we have to spend with the transplant team is a hard day. Today we had to meet with a psychologist, our case manager, and a social worker. We agreed to go ahead and go through the qualification process so that if/when we make the decision on the transplant, we have all of the admin stuff complete.

We also got a lot of our questions answered. Every time Dustin and I talked about transplant we always centered around her quality of life. What could she do, what couldn't she do?

Then there are the life questions every parent thinks about - how would this affect Madison, how do we financially handle all of this, what about caregivers, what about work.

What we found out was reassuring. There isn't much she could not do. The one sport she should stay away from would be football so my hope that Mallory would be the next VOLS superstar is now a fantasy.  :( Dang!!

Yes, she most likely will be sicker for longer periods of time. Madison would come home with a cold for 2 days, Mallory would be out for a week.

Surprisingly we would have a couple positives being a newborn. Mallory can accept any heart no matter what the blood type because her heart is so young her body wouldn't know. Also, there is less rejection with a newborn.

We would have a higher rate of infection though.

Going through making this decision has been the hardest thing I hope to ever have to do. And talking about it at times makes me feel like we have given up... And I'm not ready to give up.

On a positive note, Mallory has had a good day - it was a quiet day which means a good day.