Douglas-Liver Recipient

Being a transplant recipient, I feel that my testimony alone, will have a great influence on people. I anticipate that some of the statistics I can share with them will also have a lasting impact.
My mother had a liver transplant back in November of 1990, and at that time the doctors couldn’t tell me whether or not her liver disease was hereditary. About March of 2011 I was needing a knee replacement, but the clotting level of my blood was too low, so after taking vitamin K and eating a lot of greens, my clotting levels were still too low. Doctors sent me for more test and found my liver enzymes were elevated to high level, so I went to Vanderbilt to see a specialist. I found out that I had the genetic marker and the cirrhosis had advanced beyond repair.

Now I was never an angel, I did my fair share of binge drinking and was overweight, which adds a fatty liver to the mess.  In November of 2011 I was put on the transplant list, meanwhile I dealt with ascites, weakness, and continued weight loss. My weight went from 305 lbs. to 195 lbs, by the time I got my liver transplant on April 14, 2012. Things were going good until the end of week two of recovery, one of the bile ducts had clotted off and the other kinked off, this put me to the top of the transplant list. Two weeks later I got my second liver transplant. It has now been four years and ten months and all is well. It’s not that I haven’t had any problems but I am still alive and enjoying life now, more than ever.