Forum Overview :: American McGee's Stay Alive
 
Re: You're uglier than I am, I feel pretty good right now. by laudablepuss 01/09/2011, 1:03am PST
Just Another Mysterious Stranger wrote:

That's a great story, and at the very end of the zone of likely/possible for these situations. Actually, it's basically not-possible that you lived and got transplanted. I do a lot of volunteer service in the local transplant community, and the stories are pretty wild as a rule, but yours wins the A. Pismo Clam Award for Unlikeliest Survivor.

I guess the main advantage to having a fulminating hepatitis situation like yours is that your body (the rest of it) was basically very strong and healthy, and you didn't spend an eternity on a waiting list, getting sicker. That's a huge advantage. But the rest of it: unreal.

Your choices:

(a) buy a lottery ticket. You're freakishly lucky and you'll win.
(b) don't buy a lottery ticket ever again. Your allotment of luck has been used up for this lifetime and you'll anger the gods.


Fortunately, I don't believe in fate so I don't mind tempting it, as it were.

More fun info! Had several interesting talks with my surgeon. My brother asked, how'd you end up doing transplants? He said, well, originally I wanted to play basketball and then be a basketball coach. Then he went through a half dozen other career paths that seemed cool at first but got boring or otherwise unacceptable. Well, glad he ended up doing this because he's clearly the best or among the best ever.

About his approach to liver failure and cross blood-type transplants: he explained that there had been a series of deaths after transplants that were fairly mysterious, and they had been blamed on the cross blood-type issue. So when he first started (at Children's Hospital in Atlanta) he avoided that. But then one day he had a really sick kid, who needed a liver asap. So he did a cross blood-type transplant, and it worked out pretty well. "Then I did thirty more and THEY worked out pretty well too." So he doesn't really worry much about it now. The key is to get the new liver in as fast as possible and not wait around for the patient to deteriorate. Some people say, "wait and see, maybe the liver will get better" but in his experience, the liver doesn't get better after a certain point. And the patient's chances get smaller and smaller as you wait. He said, those guys are theorists, but I'm a surgeon and if the patient dies, I feel like it's something I did.

He's done something like 900 transplants in 20 years, 300 of them on kids.

Just as interesting as that, it turns out that liver transplants were first done right here in Denver. One of the older nurses at the hospital told me she'd actually been there back in the 60s when Dr. Starzl was working on this, and she thought at the time that it was unethical because "those patients looked terrible". But Starzl said, we gotta start somewhere. And low and behold, 47 odd years later, I got a transplant and it fucking kicked ass.
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Okay, here's my liver transplant update forum by laudablepuss 01/07/2011, 8:07pm PST NEW
    I'm glad you're not dead since you're one of the nicest posters here, but by WITTGENSTEIN 01/07/2011, 9:06pm PST NEW
        I will post pictures of me at a slightly higher ebb NT by laudablepuss 01/07/2011, 11:18pm PST NEW
            Re: I will post pictures of me at a slightly higher ebb by laudablepuss 01/10/2012, 4:42pm PST NEW
                awwwww sort of cute in a dirtbag/transplanted liver way! by ndd 01/10/2012, 6:05pm PST NEW
                    Hey, odd coincidence by laudablepuss 01/10/2012, 6:14pm PST NEW
        Slim, no goatee: expectations exceeded NT by Vested Id 01/07/2011, 11:21pm PST NEW
            seconded NT by up with pod people 01/08/2011, 4:12pm PST NEW
        You're uglier than I am, I feel pretty good right now. by Just Another Mysterious Stranger 01/08/2011, 8:10am PST NEW
            Re: You're uglier than I am, I feel pretty good right now. by laudablepuss 01/09/2011, 1:03am PST NEW
    I feel like I should apologize by Fullofkittens 01/08/2011, 6:03am PST NEW
        Full of Kitten Livers. NT by Mischief Maker 01/08/2011, 3:34pm PST NEW
        Did you stab a voodoo doll of me or something? NT by laudablepuss 01/13/2011, 11:12pm PST NEW
            there's this ongoing joke on Caltrops where people get us mixed up and can't tel NT by Fullofkittens 01/14/2011, 6:19am PST NEW
                there's this ongoing joke on Caltrops where people get us mixed up and can't tel by Kenji Carter 01/14/2011, 7:39am PST NEW
                    That's funny, I thought bM was just making that up NT by laudablepuss 01/14/2011, 3:52pm PST NEW
        Your liver is constantly working out. His liver was lazy. NT by Use it or lose it. 01/14/2011, 1:55am PST NEW
            Gym, tan, laundry by Fullofkittens 01/14/2011, 6:17am PST NEW
    Who'd have thought laudablepuss would have a 10 in END? by Entropy Stew 01/08/2011, 10:51am PST NEW
        Re: Who'd have thought laudablepuss would have a 10 in END? by laudablepuss 01/09/2011, 1:30am PST NEW
    What? NT by laudablepuss liver 01/08/2011, 11:50am PST NEW
    Re: Okay, here's my liver transplant update forum by Ice Cream Jonsey 01/08/2011, 5:28pm PST NEW
        AWWW NT by ICJ YOU ARE THE CUTEST!!! 01/08/2011, 9:08pm PST NEW
        No, I totally agree that losing to the Seahawks is a fucking disaster by laudablepuss 01/09/2011, 12:49am PST NEW
            That reminds me by laudablepuss 01/09/2011, 1:18am PST NEW
                Re: That reminds me by Ice Cream Jonsey 01/13/2011, 6:50pm PST NEW
    Front page plz NT by Vested Id 01/11/2011, 11:06pm PST NEW
        Yaaa NT by aaay 01/13/2011, 12:02am PST NEW
            The blurb is great. NT by motherfuckerfoodeater 01/14/2011, 3:39pm PST NEW
    Did they ever tell you why your liver suddenly decided to die? NT by WITTGENSTEIN 01/12/2011, 4:23pm PST NEW
        Nope :( by laudablepuss 01/12/2011, 5:09pm PST NEW
            Re: Nope :( by Just Another Mysterious Stranger 01/12/2011, 6:52pm PST NEW
                Re: Nope :( by laudablepuss 01/12/2011, 7:38pm PST NEW
                    I can't believe there was another transplant guy here by and he caught CMV 01/12/2011, 8:02pm PST NEW
                        Re: I can't believe there was another transplant guy here by laudablepuss 01/13/2011, 6:21pm PST NEW
                    Re: Nope :( by Fullofkittens 01/12/2011, 8:20pm PST NEW
    oh shit man. get well soon NT by jeep 01/14/2011, 9:13pm PST NEW
    Update time! by Just Another Mysterious Stranger 01/21/2011, 6:23am PST NEW
        Re: Update time! by laudablepuss 01/21/2011, 7:48pm PST NEW
    First day back at work by laudablepuss 02/01/2011, 4:55pm PST NEW
        Re: First day back at work by Just Another Mysterious Stranger 02/01/2011, 7:20pm PST NEW
            Re: First day back at work by Just Another Mysterious Stranger 02/01/2011, 7:23pm PST NEW
                No worries! by laudablepuss 02/02/2011, 12:57pm PST NEW
    Dear online liver diary by laudablepuss 02/04/2011, 10:18am PST NEW
        Let's have Fussbett continue to needle the man, or we'll all think less of him. NT by Quentinbec 02/04/2011, 12:48pm PST NEW
        Re: Dear online liver diary by Just Another Mysterious Stranger 02/05/2011, 7:42am PST NEW
            Re: Dear online liver diary by laudablepuss 02/06/2011, 12:19pm PST NEW
            Re: Dear online liver diary by laudablepuss 04/14/2011, 9:58pm PDT NEW
                whoa, free creatine? Dude, hit the gym, bro NT by Bro spot me. Then I spot you. 04/15/2011, 1:28am PDT NEW
                    Not quite by laudablepuss 04/15/2011, 8:34am PDT NEW
                    Sorry, I'm tired and everything is DEAD FUCKING SERIOUS this morning :( NT by laudablepuss 04/15/2011, 8:43am PDT NEW
                Re: Dear online liver diary by Just Another Mysterious Stranger 04/15/2011, 6:27am PDT NEW
                    Re: Dear online liver diary by laudablepuss 04/15/2011, 8:49am PDT NEW
        Re: Dear online liver diary by Reverse-Lookup OED 02/05/2011, 8:47pm PST NEW
            Re: Dear online liver diary by Mischief Testiclecuttlefish 02/06/2011, 4:11pm PST NEW
        Highlights of my visit so far by laudablepuss 02/07/2011, 3:38pm PST NEW
            Re: Highlights of my visit so far by laudablepuss 02/07/2011, 3:39pm PST NEW
    And now a word from Ryan North by laudablepuss 02/18/2011, 2:56pm PST NEW
 
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