Eight years ago this morning, I woke up in intensive care after receiving a liver transplant. I looked like this:
They even had the machine that goes “PING!”
I’d been sick for over a year, but I finally got a diagnosis in May: Cirrhosis.
S’what? I don’t drink. I never have. They told me it was “Fatty Liver Disease.” Apparently a growing problem among Americans. One doctor told me, “I know people a lot bigger than you whose livers are fine, and skinnier than you who are just as bad off.” How comforting.
Turns out, though, my issue wasn’t “Fatty Liver,” it was bad choice of parents. I had “Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency,” a genetic disorder. For most people with this malfunction, the liver doesn’t produce, or produce enough of a protein called, unsurprisingly, Alpha-1 Antitrypsin that acts as an anti-inflammatory for the lungs. These people develop lung disorders like COPD and emphysema.
Not me. I got the other version. My liver made the protein, but folded some or most of it wrong. The wrongly folded protein cannot get out of the liver, and over time produces the scar tissue that is cirrhosis. Pictures below the fold.
You have been warned.
This is a healthy human liver:
This is what came out of me:
My gall bladder obviously wasn’t in great health either.
Anyhoo, I got a massive amount of support from you, my readers, and I just want to say “Thank you.” It’s pretty cool living in the future.
Kevin,
I’m glad to see you are still going after all of that. Looking forward to many more years of your content.
Randy
Kevin, thank you for sharing the story of how you were blessed. For all the present noise from some corners about how bad off we all are…. it sure seems to me that we live in a golden age of medical and dental care, thank the Lord.
May you continue to live in good health and carry on with your endeavors!
Best Regards, Tim
Yikes! I think even Dr. Lector would pass on that, even with a bottle of Chianti or three.
Congratulations on making it to an 8-year anniversary of the transplant. Here’s hoping you’ve got plenty more of them to celebrate.
I never knew it was Alpha-1. That makes more sense. My grandmother and her identical twin both went out to it before it was diagnosed in my father. (They also had liver damage with no emphysema, and that wasn’t part of the diagnosis in the 90s.)
I had the genotyping test, I’m MS while my dad was SZ. My odds of ever having low levels are as close to zero as you can get, and I’ve still got fatty liver disease. Cest la vie.
Make sure you get your cancer screenings. They had to carve a few out of my dad, but because he did all the screenings, none of them every got big enough to be dangerous.
2 years ago I had open heart surgery – anything on that level changes your life by smacking you up the side of your head and saying pay attention.
Glad it went well.
Glad you’re still around to harass us, and give us those uber posts!!!
I was just thinking that we tend to see thing in a before ande after way. I.e. I think in terms of before my heart surgery and afetr heart surgery. I would imagine you see it the same way.
It’s been two years and now I think in terms of my retirement, next year, how am I going to spend my days, what hobbies do I want to explore more, will I do a part time job (don’t have too), and what, that type of thing.