This is a story that leads to a liver transplant. Liver transplants are a problem that the medical field has made huge advances in. The liver itself is an organ that will regenerate. If you take part of it out it will grow back close to it’s original size. I was a lucky one and am here now to tell the story.
I had the transplant back in March, 2005. 7 years earlier I started feeling more tired during the day and had to take naps. It was getting worse and worse. I thought I would have to see a psychiatrist. I was starting to get lazy. I had a cabinet shop that I just opened. I was working all night sometimes with a friend to get a job out on time because I was napping during the day.
At one of my jobs I was feeling sick on a trip to the plumber. I had to pull over and lay down in the truck I felt so bad. When I got back I started coughing up the red stuff. I was working and needed to get the job done. I asked Todd (my friend) if I should go see the doctor after we finished that day. Right away he took me to the hospital. After being in there for a week, I was on a no salt diet to keep the fluid from building in side. I thought I was cured.
One particular night I had this tremendous pain in my stomach area. It had been getting worse and worse over the last three days. Now it had me buckled over in pain. My friend and fellow worker Todd took me to the emergency room again to relieve the pain. They gave me something for the pain but during one of the tests they noticed my liver functions were way off.
A liver specialist sent the findings to Mayo hospital in Minnesota. He came back with good news and bad news. The good news was that they found out what was wrong. The bad news was that I had a rare disease called PSC. I would need a liver transplant. It is nothing genetic I’m just one of the lucky ones. It will take 7-10 years before I need the transplant, I was told. I needed the transplant 3 years later. Because the disease doesn’t effect my kidneys, I was told that I would never be at the top of the transplant list. I would need a living donor to live. One who would have almost the same size and blood type among other things. The donor would have to have the same painful surgery to give me half of their liver.
Right after the super bowl I received a call from another friend that told me he had something for me. He was going to give half of his liver. Here I am today able to tell the story.
For me it is a beautiful thing. For him it is a beautiful thing.