I’m not certain who it was that recommended the Swedish Transplant Center to us after UW finished jerking us around. Probably Scot who, after all, has pretty impressive experience with organ transplant.

Regardless, we made our overtures to Swedish and got an appointment — one of those all day, talk to everyone from God on down appointments — pretty briskly.

From the get-go the impression we got from the Swedish Transplant folks was much, MUCH different.
At the all day UW appointment we were given the “here’s how this is going down” video to watch at home and then again with Andrew’s charming transplant coordinator. Meaning that if we had questions we had to write them down and figure out who to ask them to or ask them to a woman who really gave us the impression that we were a nuisance to her.
The all day Swedish appointment started out with a small group of transplant postulants and their support people and a moderator. We watched a very familiar “here’s how this is going down” video, but the moderator not only narrated the video, but would stop it and answer questions on the spot when someone had one.
Working through the UW transplant process we were left with the impression that we were being told “Here’s all the ways this can go badly, don’t screw it up!”. What we got from Swedish was “Here’s all the ways this can go badly and here’s what we’ll be doing to help you keep things from going badly.” They made it seem very much more like a cooperative relationship rather than a superior/subordinate relationship.

Every single medical person we saw that day was absolutely gobsmacked at the idea that the UW didn’t want to proceed with the transplant unless Andrew’s BMI was less than 30. Every. Single. One.
We got so many double takes and “A BMI of less than 30?! Really?!!” that we started betting whether or not the next person we saw would say those exact words.
But we ran through the lineup of nephrologists, pharmacologists, social workers, fruit bats, and crunchy frogs. We ended that day with the assurance that, pending the transfer of all of Andrew’s pre-transplant screening test results and all of Curt’s pre-donation screening test results, there didn’t seem to be any major concerns with proceeding with the transplant.

Which leads me to another point about which the UW transplant service can eat a dick.
When we first met with the transplant surgeon at UW he told us that if Andrew’s tests were all complete and we had a properly screened donor right outside the door that it’d still take two months before the surgery could be scheduled because their transplant schedule was so full.
(I have to pause here and say: “HOW?! With all the bullshit you pull to transplant only the healthiest of people who need a kidney transplant, HOW can the UW transplant service be that busy?!”)
We had our orientation meeting at Swedish in early June. The medical records and test results were all transferred by mid-June. Swedish cleared Curt as a donor in early July, and Andrew finished what we thought would be the last bits of the needed testing in mid July.
On August 8th Andrew sent me a text letting me know that the surgery was scheduled for August 26th.
Two months my butt!