Very well stated, Rick.
Sandi, I don't think you will find any transplant center that is going to require less than 6 months of sobriety for transplant. Regarding the cancer, I am very pro-Mayo as they literally saved my life. Shands Jacksonville diagnosed my liver cancer in early 2005, but I believe they missed it the previous year. I was having a sonogram every year. When it was discovered, it was 12 cm x 11.5 cm and had spread into the inferior vena cava. After diagnosis, it didn't grow any more. However, I couldn't get an appt. with an oncologist at Shands and the GI doctor and my primary care doc pretty much said it was hopeless and fatal. In May of '05, I received Medicare, so I made an appt. at Mayo myself (you can get online and request your own appt. They will call you within 2 days.) Although I'd had CT, MRI, and blood work at Shands, Mayo repeated everything and more. As I mentioned previously, I only saw an oncologist once at Mayo. From there I went to the Transplant Team, though they determined I wasn't eligible for transplant, due to the metastasis. However, to this day, I am seen by the Transplant Team.
It was 2 yrs. from diagnosis of cancer before I finally had surgery. During that time, I was really worried that the tumor was going to metastasize to my lungs or another organ and make me ineligible for treatment. Sobriety was never a problem, as I had been sober 19 yrs. when I first went to Mayo. However, after chemoembolization, I had a long wait for the TheraSphere. It had been used at Rochester, but never in Jacksonville, so there was all sorts of red tape and they had to prove various things before being approved to go ahead. It was a drug study. I was #2 in the study. Between the chemoembolizaton and the TheraSphere, the tumor had shrunk enough--and basically died, as had the rt. lobe--to qualify for surgical removal of the rt. lobe in May '07. It was the holdup for TheraSphere that took so long, as everything else went very quickly. After TheraSphere, I had to wait a number of months for it to do its work on the tumor, before being eligible for surgery.
I think you are right to concentrate on the cancer first, as I do not believe they would do transplant until it is absolutely determined that it hasn't spread...and maybe not even then. It is also best not to have Mike's medical care scattered about in different facilities. If you feel uncomfortable with U of M, contact Mayo. I will tell you that they don't accept Medicaid as a primary insurance, but due to the complexity of his case, there may be a way around that (such as their charity funding.) I do know that Mayo Jacksonville treats everyone very respectfully. Be sure you have all reports with you and, if possible, actual film. They will probably still go ahead with their own testing, though. It is a paperless facility and everyone you come in contact with can pull up his info on the computer, including all recent testing and consults.
Best of luck and let us know what you decide.
Hugs,
Connie