My parents have passed down lovely auto immune diseases that, fortunately, skipped them.
I have Celiac disease (all I have to do is stay away from gluten), and my brother has Auto Immune Hepatitis, which means that your body rejects your own liver. There isn't a whole lot you can do and NO, this is not something you can "catch." Like both of us, it is dormant in your body and then you have a trigger that sets it off. I got a bacteria from Ryan's Steak House and for the next 3 years, I never recovered until they finally did a blood test to find out it was in fact, Celiac Disease. My brother was in college (2001) when his started attacking him. He started to turn yellow and we knew something was up.
He has been doing good for the most part with medication, but it just masked the problem. 2 years ago, he has a flare up and was in the hospital. They told him that his transplant was probably going to be sooner than later.
That brings us to this Fall. They took him off all his medicines because he continued on them, they would cause him to get cancer. If he got cancer, he would not be allowed to have a transplant. So, off the meds he went. Which meant, he would get MORE SICK. Which meant he would get a transplant sooner.
We have been climbing the charts to being the top in the region. He was a back up for a liver 2 weeks ago. He got a call on a Thursday, and someone else got it. Then, he got a call on Saturday…..they flew it in and we were ready to go. Turns out, it was a bad liver. Stink. The roller coaster we have been on for the last few months has been nothing but scary. We tried not to get our hopes up on May 9th, but knew God was in control.
At midnight (technically May 10th) he was given new life with a new liver. We will never know who donated it, but we are thankful for their willingness to be on the donor list when they passed away. If you have never even thought about if you are an organ donor, check out your driver's license. If you aren't and would like to be, please get it changed. It can truly change lives. I don't need them when I pass away, but someone like my brother is very grateful to you, if you do donate them.
With all that being said, we all knew the road afterwards would not be a smooth road. We had some complications this weekend and he is in a lot of pain. He had to go back into surgery to repair his new liver and get tubes connected to him to drain the fluid off around his lung, but HE IS ALIVE!! We are so happy that he is out of ICU and on the transplant step down floor.
He will be back to a normal 33 year old self in 3-6 months. We look forward to helping him get back to playing with his two adorable daughters (3 and 6 yrs old) and getting back to being the husband he has wanted to be for so long.
At the top of my page is the link to the fundraising page. People have asked "does he has insurance?" The answer is "YES." However, we all know that insurance doesn't cover all expenses. They had to get an apartment in NOLA and the extra times he was in the hospital before the procedure, it was not a cheap one. He needs to know that his family is taken care of during this long process and journey. He needs to have a peace of mind to know that everything is taken care of so he can rest and heal more quickly.
Thank you for your support for my brother. Everyone has a story. It is how we handle our story to bring glory to HIM that makes the journey more special.
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