Hector got his liver last night.

mikesimon

Yes, it's on Facebook that he went into surgery at 5 pm and was closed at 11 pm. He did great according to the FB post and now we just have to send him the best healing Karma we can manage.
What truly fantastic news! I don't belong to FB but I think I recall that he told me it was a 36 year old liver prior to surgery. I'm not sure of that but I think it's true. I was just too excited to think straight or hear straight.

Our prayers have been answered.

Mike

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Boobert

Here is an update on my condition...

This is from Hector (Howie)

I am very happy to have a new lease on life after fighting liver cancer (HCC) for 29 months and being on the transplant wait-list for about 3 years. I still have hepatitis C but I am not worrying about it as I know that with this new liver and the future treatments I will win that fight also. Having gotten a transplant is almost incomprehensible logically as I had failed all standard liver cancer treatments and because of the location of the tumor had made my liver cancer essentially untreatable. I was told by my hepatologist in October I didn't have much longer to live if I didn't get a transplant very soon. Luckily my hepatologist choose me to be her first patient to ever try Cyberknife radiation treatment for HCC which brought my AFP down from 1,240 to 377 (under the 500 limit) which allowed to be put back on the transplant waiting list.

I received my transplant at UCSF on Saturday November 16th evening. My donor was a 36 year old woman who died a cardiac death. I am forever grateful to her and think about her daily. She donated her disease free (no hep b or c or any other factors) to me. After being off the waiting-list most of 2013 because of my untreatable liver cancer (failed 5 HCC treatments) the Cyberknife radiation treatment, which was experimental, finally got my AFP tumor marker below the 500 criteria (377) for eligibility for transplant. When I got back on the waiting-list I had the highest MELD score at UCSF with type O blood, 36. I waited a week and a half before receiving a call from surgeon Dr. Chris Freise Saturday morning (6:30 am) saying a liver may be available for me and that he would update me throughout the day as things developed. Later in the early afternoon he told me that I should plan on coming in at about 5 pm for the surgery. My friend Jim, who received his transplant almost exactly 4 years earlier drove me to the hospital and waited for me to go into the OR. It all happened so fast I didn't even have time to get nervous. The surgery lasted about 6 hours. I was later told that the donor's liver was one of the healthiest my surgeon had ever seen and that as some as the blood flow to my new liver was started the perfusion looked wonderful.

Dr. Roberts said I could go home on Wednesday but my sister needed to purchase my post transplant meds and learn how to test my blood sugar and give me insulin injections so we stayed until Thursday.

By Saturday I was walking without a walker.

After being home for 4 days I developed severe pain at my belly button. Since I had my first lab on Monday I called and setup and appointment to have it looked at. When the doctor looked at the area he said I need to have surgery as soon as could be arranged. The pain was caused by having a hernia that was a complication of my cirrhosis that was now strangling bowel tissue and collateral veins due to the changed volume of my abdomen after my transplant. I had surgery Tuesday afternoon with Dr. Asher and her team. The damaged parts of the hernia were surgically removed. The remaining healthy tissue was then pushed back into my abdomen and the abdominal wall was then sutured together in three layers and a new belly button was created by one of the young surgeons. I was allowed to go home on Thanksgiving afternoon to have Thanksgiving dinner with my sister, who is taking care of me post transplant.

Since I have made very quick progress in my recovery I have had the good fortune of reducing my immunosuppressants (Prednisone 5 mg and Prograf 10 mg per day 2 weeks post transplant).

I am learning to walk further each day and some of the abdomen pain is getting better as well. I will have my first clinic appointment tomorrow and hope that things continue to improve as time goes on so I will soon be more independent and be able to care for myself. That will allow my sister to return to her family and work in .

Tuesday December 3rd – I had my 54 surgical staples removed today and all of my blood tests except for Hemoglobin (10.0) are looking great. The Hemoglobin should improve with time. Platelet count 205, bilirubin 0.6, AST 12, ALT 24.

Very grateful to have a second chance at life.

Thank you all for your support there the darkest hours without the encouragement of family, friends and my medical care givers I never would have been able to accomplish what I have.

Howie

Hector got his liver last night.

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