Oh, so THAT happened

I just realized, if you haven’t followed me on Facebook, there was a major life event!

 

After I left Jessie, I slid further and further into addiction with what felt like no chance or no reason to ever recover. I’m going to majorly condense this story, but if you have questions, feel free to ask.

 

On 11/10/14, I finally conceded to be taken to the er because I hadn’t been sober in literally weeks, if not months. After I was checked out, my BAC was almost .4, which is pretty much deadly. I was transferred to Barnes-Jewish in stl to detox safely, and spent about 2 weeks in a medically-induced haze, coding twice.

 

By the grace of God, I was noticed by the liver specialist who was head of the transplant team. My liver function was at 4%. He took special interest in me, and over the course of the next 5 months, I fought through multiple bouts of c-diff, vre, acute renal failure and various other illnesses that landed me in ICU there for 1-2 weeks at a time.

 

During all this, I was accepted as a candidate for transplant, once I had 6 mo sobriety and “passed” all the testing. (They test EVERYTHING including your mental stability and financial status) and in March, while in ICU for renal failure, I finished all the testing and waited to see if I’d be accepted.

 

I officially made the transplant list list in early May, as #2 in the country. My MELD scores stayed in the low 40’s, which is “transplant soon or you die” level. I had to have a full liver, which meant waiting for a death to occur to save my life – and that’s the reason they test your mental stability.   I could go on for days about the gravity of being in that situation.

 

On my 3rd call, I got The Call that they possibly had a liver for me. June 6, 2015, at 11:42 am. I knew the second the phone rang who it was. We rushed to stl, were taken to the transplant unit and waited for the organ to arrive and be checked out by the surgeon. I ultimately went into surgery around 11:15 pm, and was in recovery around 5:30 am. Had I not gotten a new liver, my prognosis was death by November.   I was still losing blood after the surgery, so the next day they had to reopen me to look for any internal bleeding.

 

And I went home the following Friday. 😳

 

A few months later, after I’d written to my donor family, I got a letter back, and long story short, thru the magic of google, I located my donor’s mom and learned about Raymond, whose liver I hold.

 

Thats why, when I relapsed after 2 years, I immediately went into treatment – I couldn’t go back down that path with the gift of life.

 

So thats my big catch-up. Do me a favor, huh?  Become an organ donor. And it’s more than just checking a box, you have to make your wishes known to your family, because ultimately they make the final decision to donate.

 

Peace out, heading to refuge recovery!