Wish I could say we've made more progress. One week ago, Dennis suffered a mild heart attack and was eventually transferred to the Cardiac ICU for closer observation. After several days in the ICU and some adjustments to his medications, he's now back out on the regular floor and doing well without any further complications.
What this means, unfortunately, is that he is no longer a transplant candidate - at least not for the time being. Cardiology has scheduled an Angiogram - one of those diagnostic tests that will give them an idea of how much (if any) damage was done to his heart. If the damage is slight as expected, the abscess surgery will go on as planned, he'll recover from the infection and we'll get back into the transplant system. The test will take place on Tuesday and I will do my best to update here as soon as we learn the outcome.
The crusade, of course, continues. I've heard back from Mayor Kevin Johnson's Chief of Staff, who assures me that Mayor Johnson will see my e-mail and help if possible. I've started a group on Facebook.com, Save The UC Davis Liver Transplant Program. With the help of friends & family, we're 28 members strong and growing - if you're on Facebook, I hope you'll join us.
Meanwhile, I have a new name for you: Ann Madden Rice. Ms. Rice (she's not hyphenated) is the CEO of the UCD Med Center. According to their website, she's a "nationally recognized expert in the management of health-care institutions". That would explain her salary of $584,300 annually, I suppose. I'll be sure to ask her about that when I write to her! I'll also ask how it is that a $45 million dollar profit last year translates to closing life-saving programs today, and what she did to deserve a $79,000 bonus last year when UCDMC must be broke, right? Feel free to join me in asking Ms. Rice what the hell they were thinking at that board meeting. Same address on Stockton Blvd., sadly, no direct e-mail address.
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