Anxiety on what to do with my luggage when arriving for a transplant.

Hi @tony102256, I moved your question to the Transplants support so that other liver transplant recipeints can respond. I'm tagging a few people who I believe had their liver transplant at Mayo Clinic in Arizona like @craigcraig @kim1965 @azkellyw @mmcpounders @pjrace @lcd @nusscass @ajdo129

While you want for responses to your specific questions about luggage, timeline and how long things may take, you might also be interested in these related discussions:
- What's your Liver Transplant experience Mayo Clinic (Arizona)? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/how-long-waiting-at-mayo-clinic-in-arizona-for-liver-transplant-after/
- Liver transplant at Mayo AZ: Questions about MELD etc. https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/liver-transplant-the-big-question/
- How much time do I have to get to Mayo once liver available? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/question-4/

Tony, keep asking questions. We're here to walk along side you.

Hi Toney. I had a liver transplant at Mayo Phx a year and a half ago. We live out of state (CO). When we got the call at midnight (literally) and were told they had a liver for me if I could make it to AZ in about 24 hrs. Caught the first red eye out of DIA Monday morning. Was told to come straight to Mayo, not any hotel. When we got there they rushed me to the operating table and folks at the Mayo front desk told my wife/caregiver they could not check our bags but they would watch them. I was in the 9 hour surgery 30 hrs from the call. They told my wife to go to the hotel and rest as she could not help during the surgery. She did not want to but got an Uber to the hotel, checked in with the bags and returned the next morning as I was still in surgery. Not sure if all this was typical but talking to others could be close. Have your go bag and caregiver ready to roll. Hope this helps. Prayers up.

Hi @tony102256
My wife had her surgery in Milwaukee, WI at Froedtert Hospital this past January. Our circumstances were different than yours needing to get to Mayo by plane once you got the call. We were given only 5 hours (we lived 1 hr from hospital) to get to the hospital, as donor liver was from an individual that had been on life support. As craigcraig mentioned in our pretraining the "gobag" was highly recommended to be ready to go. Regarding your questions, 1. I was taken to Family Center where we could get texts on the update during my wife's surgery. I kept the gobag by me until the surgery was completed. 2. My wife's surgery took about 4.5 hours, with no complications till later in the week after the surgery, but the transplant went as planned. We were told about 4-6 hours depending how everything goes at each step. As Colleen mentioned, we are all here to help you Tony. Please let us know what other questions you may have. You got this, we got you!

When we did our 1 week evaluation at Mayo Phoenix we were asked about relocation, we live in Ca. When they called the following week to let us know we were on the list and can we relocate. We were planning on staying at the Help in Healing casitas on the Mayo property for the duration. (Highly recommend) I flew in with one daughter and my wife drove with another daughter. Worked perfect, we arrived on 1/23/25 settled in and waited. On 2/5/25 the call came at 1:30am to get to the hospital. We took half hour to get ready and made the two minute trip to the hospital. My surgery was about 5 hours and my wife and daughter were able to go back to our casita and relax as best they could. We stayed in the casita until 5/9/25, we met many new friends and were able to hear many stories about what they were going through. Like I mentioned the casitas on site were great, no hotel lobby, no noise, cook your own food and a built in support group. If you have to pay out of pocket it’s only $50 a night for a 2 queen room, in suite bathroom, free laundry, great kitchen and your a five minute walk to the hospital. We were lucky and our insurance payed for our stay. Good luck.

My surgery was 13 hours and after that I had a stroke , seizure, brain bleed and a coma for a few days and recovery room for 2 months after losing 60 lbs i think who’s ever dropping you off has plenty of time , I hope everything goes well for you

Each surgeon and circumstance are different. Some surgeons want you in the hospital and prepped up for many hours (10-20?). Once I got the offer, I did not have to report to hospital until 24 hours later. At that point, knowing it was a good matching liver, I was prepped and waited about 6 hours until actual rollback. My wife then took our travel bags and waited in general waiting area for my 8 hour surgery. Thankfully, I was admitted directly to a room after surgery and not ICU (very relieving when I awoke). My wife was already settled in our new home for 5 days (again super relieving to wake up and see/feel her). I should also note, I had one dry run where the liver was not viable. Surgery times are all different, but I believe the caregivers have plenty of time to take care of luggage and update friend/family during your surgery/post op recovery.