I'm a 24 year old without health insurance in need of a liver transplant for my end stage liver disease, after being diagnosed with PSC at 5 years old. Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a disease that damages your bile ducts and liver. It narrows your bile ducts, which eventually causes bile to back up into your liver. This has lead to heavy scarring, called Cirrhosis, and now outright liver failure. The only cure for PSC is a transplant.

Liver disease stages:

Inflammation: In this early stage of liver disease, your liver is swollen but you may not notice any symptoms.

Scarring (fibrosis): Over time, inflammation turns healthy liver tissue into scar tissue, which is called fibrosis. Fibrosis makes it harder for your liver to work properly, but it is often reversible.

Cirrhosis: When your liver becomes severely and permanently scarred, this is called cirrhosis. Cirrhosis may be caused by heavy alcohol use, viral hepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, fatty liver disease, bile duct diseases and various hereditary conditions.

End-stage liver disease (liver failure): Over time, cirrhosis can slowly lead to a decline in liver function and, ultimately, end-stage liver disease. This means your liver has shut down and can no longer perform important functions like getting rid of harmful substances, producing proteins that allow for adequate clotting and making bile, which is needed to digest food. Once cirrhosis progresses to this advanced stage, the definitive treatment is a liver transplant.