Tara's Liver Transplant

Family, friends, colleagues, stalkers, weirdos, lurkers (yeah..I see you, thanks for dropping in),

Many of you haven’t seen or heard from me in a while, so I figured it would be a great time for a good old fashioned cash grab. But first, I believe I owe you a story full of twists, turns, betrayal, drama, tears, and finally hope.

OK friends, buckle up, this is going to come as a SHOCK.

I was a drinker. A partier, social drinker, weekend warrior, whatever you want to call it, I was “it”. I was born with a set of plastic darts in my hand. Odds are if you got this link and clicked on it, we’ve had a drink with me or know someone who has. It’s like the two degrees of Tara Madden only instead of being in movies with Kevin Bacon, it’s,taking shots with meeeeeeeee…

Alas that booze cruise has sailed and decided to take my liver with it. Let’s take a moment to try to remember all the black out good times we had together. It’s been something, but I was recently diagnosed with End Stage Liver Failure and will require a liver transplant to survive. (talk about burying the lede, eh)

WHAT?, you say. I KNOW. I’m surprised too. I mean we all drink right? It’s basically part of our collective personality (not speaking for my handful of non drinker acquaintances, you guys are cool all on your own, and I now appreciate that more than ever). However, drinking, along with diagnosed autoimmune diseases and a high stress lifestyle can result in liver disease even for otherwise healthy looking people like me. You don’t even need to live in an underpass, wearing soiled pants and drinking airplane sized bottles of booze. You just need to want it bad enough.

I am now 1 year sober, and loving the creation of a new healthier life for myself.

FAMILY/PERSONAL LIFE

I am a single mom to three amazing children who continue to run me ragged, demand meals, activities, affection, and DAMN, A LOT OF RIDES PLACES. They are handling all of this as well as can be expected, it’s hard, but we are managing. I am so proud of the way they have stepped up recently to keep things going.

I recently was terminated from my job after a year long leave of absence. However, prior to that I worked as the Director of Business Transformation at Invenergy. I loved my job and miss it everyday. I am blessed to be alive today and everyday. The last three years have been stunningly painful. Living through infidelity, divorce, illness and job loss. I have endured so much. That said, my spirits are high, I feel motivated and eager to start a new healthier and happier life. My parents and other extended family are all around me and cheering me on.

I have also gained new love and support from Joseph “Alex” Lutter and his extended family. Alex has agreed to become a live organ donor. If all works out during his evaluation, we will enter into surgery together sometime before the end of this year.

How it works:

Since a healthy liver will regenerate, the surgeon will take 60% of Alex’s liver and transplant it to me. My liver and gallbladder are removed and replaced with the new partial liver. Both of our organs will re-generate to 100% in about 6 weeks. During that time, Alex will make a full recovery. I will take a bit longer, but am expecting to be back to full health within 3-6 months.

We will use Caring Bridge to update extended friends and family of our progress and recovery. Please stop by our donation page if you would like to find out ways to help support us and our families. Any financial support will be used for medical, legal, accounting, and personal care needs for Tara, Joey, Tyler and Leah as well as income relief for Alex who will be unable to work for a period of time.

Thanks for reading and for your support.