Yes Liver, No Liver

This was quite an exciting weekend. On Friday, I got a call as we were walking to watch fireworks that my dad was going to the hospital for a potential liver. For those of you who don't know, my dad has been on the wait list for the past 4 years. A few months ago, he was called as the secondary recipient. Anyways, so on Friday, he was given the option of accepting the liver or not. Normally, people don't have an options, but he did because the donor had malignant glioma (the brain tumor that Ted Kennedy had). The doctors said that because the donor has some bleeding, there was a 20-30% chance that it could have metastasized to the liver. They would look at the liver to see if there were anything they could see with scans and such, but there was not way to tell on the cellular level. After much praying and discussion, my dad decided to pass on this one and wait for the next, not knowing when that would be.

He got a call on Sunday while we were at church saying that he is the secondary recipient for this liver and if he didn't get another call, then he would wait for the next one. After service was over, he got a call saying that the primary recipient was too weak to sustain surgery, so come to the hospital now because he is now the primary. We rushed to the hospital and waited allllll day. After hours of waiting, at 9:30pm, they said the surgery will be at 10pm. At 10:10, the nurse came in and said the donor liver was good, but there were tumors on the kidneys so they are rejecting the liver. Urg... Sigh... So after all of that, no liver. So, we'll wait for the next one.

Thank you to all who have prayed for my dad and our family. I ask that you also pray for the donor's family. It's sad to think that in order for my dad to get a liver, someone must pass on.