Amanda's Liver Transplant
Donation protected
Mandi and her three children. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
Singing to her Gramma (Momo)Life is filled with firsts and lasts. The first time I ever held Amanda, the last thing on my mind was that, one day, I would sit down, alone, on an autumn evening and unfold Amanda's sweet story to people I've never met in hopes I could touch their hearts on her behalf. The last thing that would have occurred to me then was that closely housed near her little heart was a tiny liver that would, one day, betray her. Amanda, now 35 years old with three children, is in end-stage liver failure. She has "NASH", or Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis.
From a large family, Mandi grew up in So. California and Montana moving to Washington at the beginning of high school. She played sports since she was 6 when she played on her first soccer team. In high school Mandi played varsity basketball, soccer, softball and sang in the jazz choir. She still sings, plays guitar and plays piano till all three of her children are asleep.
Her idea of fun is sitting at the dining table and doing math sequencing. She loves Rubik’s Cubes, watching her kids play sports, disc golf, brunch with her girlfriends and she rakes in the applause on karaoke nights.
Mandi began getting sick just a few years before these pictures were taken. At first she was misdiagnosed so her treatment did not address the real problem. She kept getting sicker and sicker each time requiring hospitalization. and the hospitalizations became more frequent.
They finally diagnosed her with liver failure due to Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis and, at that time she was given 3 months to live. She has spent almost as much time in the hospital as she has spent out of it, been intubated and transfused many times. She is literally fighting for her life. And I’m right there in the ring with her. We've been battling this for some time now and the other day she said, “Mom, I’m tired”. And so am I but I have no intention of giving up and I won’t let her give up.
Reassured many times she will not survive without a transplant, she continues to travel to Seattle from Spokane once a week for pre-transplant screening. She may stay one night or expect to stay one night and have to to stay 3. Her surgeon said she could live to 70-80 with a new liver. She had given up any hope of helping her children finish growing up but her surgeon gave her some this last trip. Her team wants her to move to Seattle to be close by as the disease progresses. The trips are expensive and exhausting. The move will separate her from her children but will, hopefully, provide her a future with them.
Mandi with her brother and sistersI will go with her. Thankfully, I can take my job with me. But I am only one person. The funds I am trying to raise will go to help with the trips to Seattle and back, with the move in general and getting into an apartment where the rent is about twice what it is here. I called the transplant coordinator and asked if they could just take my liver and give it to her to spare her having to go through all of this, she is so sick. But they can't.
I would like to invite those who feel so inspired to join us on this journey to help save Amanda’s life. If you can share words of encouragement, if you can pray, if you can identify with her, if you can donate toward the expenses building up, we welcome you. I never thought I'd be turning to strangers for help but we can’t do it alone so we are reaching out to unknown hearts and unfamiliar hands to become one with ours for Amanda.
My children mean more to me than my own life. And the last thing I ever want to happen is for one of them to go first.
From my heart,
Dannie Lynn (Amanda’s Mom)
Organizer
Dannie Lynn
Organizer
Spokane, WA
