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As we sat down to eat Andrew' 21st birthday cake, we had a call that his grandmother had died. Shortly after his 31st birthday he was diagnosed with diabetes and within months was hospitalized numerous times for a non-related and never diagnosed issue that left him living off soup, crackers and ginger ale for almost 6 months.
This year Andrew turned 41 and 2 weeks later he was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, thankfully he made a quick and almost 100% recovery. In April, we moved and Andrew started walking at leat twice a day. Our walks were getting longer and he was dropping weight. He had some swelling in his feet and legs but nothing much had been made of it, then his breathing was affected. It was believed that the extra water he was retaining was interfering with his lung capacity. Within 6 weeks of his first swelling we noticed his hands would turn blue after even a short walk, by this time we had cut our walks back to just 5- 10 minutes twice a day, but some days he couldn't make those. With his hands turning blue we knew something was seriously wrong and we were able to see his Dr later that day. During an earlier visit to get to find the cause of his water retention and breathing difficulties a scan of his lungs happened it show the very top of his liver. Dr's were quite certain he had cirrhosis of the liver, combined with the new development of blue hands he was admitted to the hospital from the Dr's office. By 5 that evening he was (thankfully) in a bed.
After a week of daily blood tests, a change in any medications that would be processed through his liver, and almost every scan, test and x-Ray had been done it was discovered he had "lung shunts" (what on earth are those?!). We had a sleepless night waiting to hear an explanation from our Dr and his new Internest.
... The verdict is, definitely liver cirrhosis. His liver is not filtering out certain proteins that had affected his lungs and caused the "shunts". The good news, the shunts will reverse themelves. The bad news, he needs a new liver to do that. Only 41, he's never been much of a drinker (in fact hish last beer was to celebrate James' 19th birthday, yay!) and he is otherwise healthy (his diabetes is well under control). He needs a liver transplant within the next few months. WHAT?!
No time to dwell, his cirrhosis is idiopathic, which means they don't know why he developed it (bad luck of the draw I guess). He is already on the transplant list and we have good reason to hope for a new liver within a few months.
Andrew is now on oxygen 24/7, but that is merely a small band aid. His blood oxygen levels drop quickly with any activity, taking a shower can leave him breathless and exhausted. We're closely monitoring his diet and keeping his salt intake as low as we can but his decline from just two weeks ago is huge.
His transplant specialist is in London, ON and making the needed trips is going to be taxing. Staying overnight is almost certainly going to be a must not to mention gas prices are not going down. We manage day to day fine on our budget but there is no room for these extra expenses. Our family is a great source of support for morale, but we will need more help. ANYTHING, ANY ONE can spare would be a huge help.
This year Andrew turned 41 and 2 weeks later he was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, thankfully he made a quick and almost 100% recovery. In April, we moved and Andrew started walking at leat twice a day. Our walks were getting longer and he was dropping weight. He had some swelling in his feet and legs but nothing much had been made of it, then his breathing was affected. It was believed that the extra water he was retaining was interfering with his lung capacity. Within 6 weeks of his first swelling we noticed his hands would turn blue after even a short walk, by this time we had cut our walks back to just 5- 10 minutes twice a day, but some days he couldn't make those. With his hands turning blue we knew something was seriously wrong and we were able to see his Dr later that day. During an earlier visit to get to find the cause of his water retention and breathing difficulties a scan of his lungs happened it show the very top of his liver. Dr's were quite certain he had cirrhosis of the liver, combined with the new development of blue hands he was admitted to the hospital from the Dr's office. By 5 that evening he was (thankfully) in a bed.
After a week of daily blood tests, a change in any medications that would be processed through his liver, and almost every scan, test and x-Ray had been done it was discovered he had "lung shunts" (what on earth are those?!). We had a sleepless night waiting to hear an explanation from our Dr and his new Internest.
... The verdict is, definitely liver cirrhosis. His liver is not filtering out certain proteins that had affected his lungs and caused the "shunts". The good news, the shunts will reverse themelves. The bad news, he needs a new liver to do that. Only 41, he's never been much of a drinker (in fact hish last beer was to celebrate James' 19th birthday, yay!) and he is otherwise healthy (his diabetes is well under control). He needs a liver transplant within the next few months. WHAT?!
No time to dwell, his cirrhosis is idiopathic, which means they don't know why he developed it (bad luck of the draw I guess). He is already on the transplant list and we have good reason to hope for a new liver within a few months.
Andrew is now on oxygen 24/7, but that is merely a small band aid. His blood oxygen levels drop quickly with any activity, taking a shower can leave him breathless and exhausted. We're closely monitoring his diet and keeping his salt intake as low as we can but his decline from just two weeks ago is huge.
His transplant specialist is in London, ON and making the needed trips is going to be taxing. Staying overnight is almost certainly going to be a must not to mention gas prices are not going down. We manage day to day fine on our budget but there is no room for these extra expenses. Our family is a great source of support for morale, but we will need more help. ANYTHING, ANY ONE can spare would be a huge help.