Through a routine term life insurance policy work-up, Joe's lab tests revealed elevated liver enzymes. That was 19 years ago.

Since that point, this condition has been monitored at regular intervals. The official diagnosis is cryptogenic cirrhosis - meaning there is no known cause.

About 10 years ago, the monitoring was stepped up and the possibility of needing a liver transplant was discussed. Over the past 5 years Joe's vitality has been declining and there were intermittent medical episodes that required either hospitalization or a lot of medical care. It has become quite apparent in the last year that a transplant would be needed in the near future.

Joe is now being treated by Dr. Victor Navarro and his team at Jefferson University Hopsital. As of September 20, 2010, Joe is officialy on the liver transplant list. From that list, donors are matched with qualified patients who are both sick enough to need an organ and healthy enough to survive the procedure. We are hopeful that Joe will be called for a transplant soon.

Joe received a liver transplant on October 8, 2010!!!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Joe is Home!

Joe came home last night - only 10 days post op! He is feeling pretty good, but still uncomfortable.

Please remember that you need to be in great health to come visit - he would love to have visitors!

Here are some of his restrictions:
No travel for a year
No crowds (i.e. church, eating out) for 4-6 weeks

For the next 6-8 weeks, we could really use some help with the following:
- staying with him during the day as he needs someone to be with him 24/7 (we are able to cover a lot of this as a family but have some gaps). Please contact Fay if you can help out.
- driving him to lab work (no driving for 4 weeks)
- meals
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