Support Frank's Journey to a New Liver

Hello everyone! Frank here!

A little about my journey.

November 26, 2022.

The day that showed me how truly fragile life is.

I was admitted to the ER suffering from kidney failure, liver failure, and three tears in my esophagus. During this time, I underwent endoscopies to surgically close the tears causing me to bleed internally. The toxins in my system were not able to be flushed out quickly enough. The toxins continued to cause my body to retain fluid to the point where I had to undergo numerous paracenteses. They inserted lengthy needles and had to manually drain my abdomen.

I also underwent a variety of tests such as CT scans, MRIs, X-rays, etc. At this point in my journey, I was not expected to leave the hospital alive. With the constant love and support of my family and friends, I started to make progress in the right direction.

Through the coming days, weeks, months, and years, I had to undergo numerous check-ups. I suffered from hepatic encephalopathy (symptoms include forgetfulness, confusion, and breath with a sweet or musty odor. Advanced symptoms include shaking of the hands or arms, disorientation, and slurred speech). This was so scary, waking up confused and not making sense to anyone. I did miss work due to this ailment. My medications also made me feel sick all the time. I was placed on quite a bit of medication—everything to combat the confusion fits, diuretics to flush my system, as well as numerous other medications. My body is always tired. I am always tired.

This still has been an uphill battle for the last two years, but I got amazing news that I will be going up to Denver to be evaluated for a liver transplant at the University of Colorado. Talking to my wife and my family about the challenges I face ahead, I realize that I couldn’t do this alone. I fly up March 31st to undergo a series of tests. This examination will check not only my heart, my lungs, my eyes, my body, my blood, my mental health, but so, so much more. These tests are causing me to miss a week of work and like everyone knows, in order to survive, bills as well as other essential things need to be paid. With me being out of work for a week, I realize the only thing I could do was ask for help. Although my wife works, she will also be taking that time off to go to Colorado with me for the evaluation. We do have to pay out of pockets for a few things while there. Such as food, transportation to and from the airport to the hotel to the hospital. I ask even if it’s a little bit just to help because missing a week of work is going to be so hard on us financially. But we are making the decision to proceed forward to attempt to get a liver transplant so I can live a full and healthy life without the ailments that I’ve currently been going through. This is the next step. This is what I need to do. I will be documenting everything for my trip to show you and everyone what it’s like to go through these evaluations and my journey to getting a new liver. If you read this far, thank you so much. Your constant support and love mean more than you will ever know to not only myself but to my wife as well as my family. Thank you, you guys.