Up to date . . .

 I missed my deadline by two days to get my monthly blood draw required to stay current with my transplant status. I usually try getting it by the 20th of the month.

But Amy Siingh, my liaison at UPMC's Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute who walks me through every situation, said not to worry.  They drew one vial of blood today to update my blood type, antigens and other blood factors.  That's necessary for comparison sake when organs become available for transplant. 

I am current once again.

Rita Green of Highmark, who's also been working with me to answer questions and encourage me in the transplant process, walked me through a set of United Network of Organ Sharing statistics on my chances, with O-positive blood, of getting a kidney-pancreas transplant. at UPMC's transplant center. Based on those stats, I have a 41 percent chance of getting a K-P (Kidney-pancreas) transplant this year and a 71 percent chance of getting the double transplant by the end of 2011.

Wow.

Those are greater odds than I'd anticipated. It made me think I'd better get my head around the idea that it could happen sooner than anticpated.