Hello All!
In a nutshell to sum up the last year and a half, the girls have been put on the waitlist for a liver transplant. Yes, TRANSPLANT!!! This happened on December 3, 2014. It has been a long road and I have isolated myself traveling it. This explains the lack of blog posts.
I reached a point where it seemed nothing was happening, like we were frozen in time. I even tried to bring myself to acceptance that there would never be a transplant for them. And just as my husband and myself had resigned ourselves that what was was going to be, the liver team at Sick Kids announced that it was time to list. It came as a big surprise as we were totally unprepared. Basically, we were told that there were no more gains to expect, that the livers were in acute cirrhosis, with lots of scarring, and that in order for them to survive, a transplant was necessary.
Back in December 2013, we were even admitted at Sick Kids in Toronto for a pre-transplant assessment. I was hopeful back then that they would be listed. The team decided otherwise, claiming the risks were still higher than the benefits, and that the main reason to list would be mainly for quality of life. We are now beyond the quality of life business.
Now what? We are now waiting for 2 livers to come our way. Cadaveric donations could take a while. Another option is live liver donations.
In order to raise awareness and hopefully interest, we have created a Facebook page that contains a lot of info and links. Here is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Liver-Transplants-for-our-Vietnamese-Twin-Girls/1401239010168456
Please VISIT the page, LIKE the page and SHARE it widely. And please CONSULT the ABOUT section of the page.
We are hoping for livers from type A or O potential live donors, who are physically healthy with a BMI below 35 to be considered. BMI must be below 32 at time of surgery. Potential live liver donors must be between 18 and 60 years of age.
Did you know a liver from a live donor will regenerate to its original size within 6 to 8 weeks?
Thank you for visiting us!
Followed your blog for a long time and wondered where you were. As a teacher I don't have a Facebook page and know others who don't. I also don't tweet or twitter. When I was trying to get signatures for an online petition about mammography and how it can miss cancer, I learned the hard way and lost my daughter in the adoption process, I was interviewed by CTV. May I suggest you see if CTV, CBC or Global are interested in sharing your story!
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