Daddy has battled Hepatitis C for the last 30 years or so, only being aware of it the last 10 years. It’s contraction is not totally known, but we speculate he got the disease when he worked at a hospital back in the 70’s.
Daddy is currently doing as well as can be expected. If you look at him, he doesn’t look “sick”. However, he’s very tired, nauseous a lot, and suffers from other various bouts of sickness. His entire life has changed in an instant. Not only is he waiting on a liver to save his life, he has had to change his entire lifestyle to prepare for a liver. He has to lose weight, watch his sodium, sugar, and fluid intakes. No more alcohol or red meat and many other food restrictions. It’s been a whirlwind at our house trying to all get accustomed to this new lifestyle.
As far as the liver transplant goes, they are based on a Model for End-Stage Liver Disease, or MELD score. The scoring is as follows:
40 or more — 100% mortality
30–39 — 83% mortality
20–29 — 76% mortality
10–19 — 27% mortality
<10- 4% mortality
Right now my dad is a 9%. In the state of Georgia, you must be a 20% or higher to receive a transplant. This seems high, but in a lot of states you have to be 30% or higher. Actually, the state of Georgia is the best state to be in for a transplant. We have one of the highest organ donor rates in the country. Amen to that! So, where do we go from here? Daddy continues to meet with the transplant teams and is doing everything he can to stay healthy. It’s a wait and see game now. We just pray that we make it to the point where we need a liver and when that time comes we get one. Thank you for all the prayers thus far and please keep praying for Daddy!
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