Upon leaving the intensive care unit, I could see and feel the changes already and now it is just unbelievable how good I feel. I have not returned to working yet but hope to very soon. The medications I take are relatively few. I was taken off of the predisone at 3 1/2 months and my bile tube (t-tube) was removed at 4 months. Usually, a person stays on prednisone almost a year and the t-tube stays in for closer to 6 months; so, all this helps to reassure me that things are going well for me.
Currently, my medications consist of Neoral (anti-rejection med.), Lasix (for edema), Cozaar (a blood pressure med.), and Bactrim (an antibiotic) 2 days a week. On my own I take Ginseng and vitamin E . I have blood draws every 2 weeks to check various lab values and to check my cyclosporine (Neoral) level.
We have moved from our apartment to a house!! It helps a lot just to have room to do things again and to have a yard. Cabin-fever is a miserable thing to deal with...being cooped up in a tiny apartment was horrific!
I had a liver biopsy done right before Christmas 1998 and it showed steatosis (fatty liver) and possible re-entry of hepatitis C into the donor liver. I can honestly say that I feel like an asset to my family and community once again. And, to those of you who are awaiting or have had a transplant I just want to say keep the faith and don't let yourself get down. You must stay confident and upbeat through the entire ordeal and you will really enjoy the second chance at life you have been given.....
Transplant has taught me to fulfill each day as if it were my last and this new lifestyle seems to work very well for me. Before transplant I used to worry about how I would be the next day or a week from now. Now, I live the day and thank the Good Lord for each and every day I am on His earth.
Today, I am happy to be alive and thank my donor family for allowing me to walk on this earth through their generous "gift of life". They gave me this gift by donating their loved one's organs. A person cannot relize how much this "gift of life" really means until you are blessed with this act of unequalled love of man that the donor or his/her family must have in order to allow the donation of their loved one's organs to help a fellow man/woman live on.
How do you appropriately thank these wonderful people? The only way I can think of is by taking great care of yourself and live a long and rewarding life.
I must wait 4 more months to contact the family and I can only pray that they will want to hear from me and know how well I am doing. All transplant centers have their own rules on how long a transplantee must wait to contact the donor family and my center requires a 1 year period. I only hope that my donor's family will want to hear from me and will write me back. I would like to know everything I possibly can about my donor and his/her family. Someday, I would love to meet them face to face and show them that their decision to donate was a wonderful choice.
The "Gift of Life" is the greatest gift a person can ever receive in their lifetime...
It has been right at one year now and things are going very well for me. I am working part-time and in the public eye every day, so people are seeing first hand that "organ donation does work". I have a couple of issues to deal with now, as my weight seems to stay in the heavy category, and there are strands of HCV already showing up in my donor liver. My liver enzymes are currently at least triple the normals and I imagine soon that my transplant center will want me to go on some form of treatment. There is really nothing available right now that has proven itself to be the drug of the future for HCV, so I may wait awhile yet before starting any treatment.
My weight...I wish I could shed a bunch of pounds but, it just doesn't happen past a point and it must not be a health threat or else I would hear about it from my transplant center. I am "ALIVE" and with my family and plan on loving my wife, seeing my son graduate and make a life for himself and my granddaughter grow up. What more could a man ask in life?! Organ donation has worked for me and many others that I know personally.
I now have to sit down and compose a letter to the family of my organ donor and express my sincere gratitude for the "Gift of Life". What does a person say to the family who made their life possible while they were grieving for their own loved one's passing? This letter will be probably the most important letter I have ever written, in my lifetime.More to come.......