CAREGIVERS TO TP CANDIDATES OR RECIPIENTS
Hi All!
When I first heard the doctor say the words "You need a liver transplant, plain and simple. You have cirrhosis and it has progressed too far for any other type of treatment."
I was numb for a few days. I had always known having Hepatitis C, both of us, that liver damage and failure was always a possibility, but never this early and this sudden. One year ago, we were living the "Life of Riley" (whomever Riley is) and you know something> we were not REALLY living! We had it SO good, we are both clean going on 11 years, from all drugs, except the one I cant kick but my husband has...cigarrettes.
Then, once I accepted it, and we notified our families, and the shock wore off, we cried together for the first time EVER, and we started REALLY appreciating each other.
I NEVER realized how unbelievablty complicated and frustrating and amazing, and emotional being a candidate for a tp, and being a CAREGIVER of a TP candidate or recipient can BE!
I was not ready for any of this, but I wrote a card many years ago to my husband, Peter, and it said "someday I hope, not for something to go wrong, but I hope that someday I will be able to pay you back and give you all the love and support you have given me over the years. Love your wife, Ashley".
That was when I knew I had a job to do. Educate myself, get a chart going, encourage him, set boundaries occasionally, keep MY heallth up, keep MY emotional and spiritual self complete, and just take one day at a time, as it comes,.
My husband has been hospitalized four times sincce we heard the news about 9 months ago.
He has had a pacemaker put in, had it malfunction two weeks later, had ANOTHER surgery and another pacemaker put in, and we have been through so MUCH.
We are still here, and we will see this to the end.
Peter said something to the doc one day that turned my whole look at this stuff around.
"It is the QUALITY of my life, NOT the QUANTITY that I want to focus on.
But sometimes, as in a transplant, we have to suffer and go through pain to get to the other side, as with recovery from any addiction, or other illnesses.
I am new here, and long winded, sorry about that.
I hope I have written something that somebody else can identify and comment on!
Ashley
When I first heard the doctor say the words "You need a liver transplant, plain and simple. You have cirrhosis and it has progressed too far for any other type of treatment."
I was numb for a few days. I had always known having Hepatitis C, both of us, that liver damage and failure was always a possibility, but never this early and this sudden. One year ago, we were living the "Life of Riley" (whomever Riley is) and you know something> we were not REALLY living! We had it SO good, we are both clean going on 11 years, from all drugs, except the one I cant kick but my husband has...cigarrettes.
Then, once I accepted it, and we notified our families, and the shock wore off, we cried together for the first time EVER, and we started REALLY appreciating each other.
I NEVER realized how unbelievablty complicated and frustrating and amazing, and emotional being a candidate for a tp, and being a CAREGIVER of a TP candidate or recipient can BE!
I was not ready for any of this, but I wrote a card many years ago to my husband, Peter, and it said "someday I hope, not for something to go wrong, but I hope that someday I will be able to pay you back and give you all the love and support you have given me over the years. Love your wife, Ashley".
That was when I knew I had a job to do. Educate myself, get a chart going, encourage him, set boundaries occasionally, keep MY heallth up, keep MY emotional and spiritual self complete, and just take one day at a time, as it comes,.
My husband has been hospitalized four times sincce we heard the news about 9 months ago.
He has had a pacemaker put in, had it malfunction two weeks later, had ANOTHER surgery and another pacemaker put in, and we have been through so MUCH.
We are still here, and we will see this to the end.
Peter said something to the doc one day that turned my whole look at this stuff around.
"It is the QUALITY of my life, NOT the QUANTITY that I want to focus on.
But sometimes, as in a transplant, we have to suffer and go through pain to get to the other side, as with recovery from any addiction, or other illnesses.
I am new here, and long winded, sorry about that.
I hope I have written something that somebody else can identify and comment on!
Ashley
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