My name is Emma,
I’m 26 years old and patiently waiting for a new liver with the Cleveland Clinic. I want to tell my story to everyone so I can start fundraising for the medical costs of my transplant, and post-surgery care. I am choosing “Help Hope Live” as a safeguard, and as a piece of mind that I, along with your generosity, will be able to cover the financial aspect of the transplant, follow-up treatments, and three-month post-surgery hospital stay for recovery.
Since I was diagnosed with my disease in early 2002, I can never remember a time where I felt, or expected pity from my family or friends. My two wonderful parents have always taught me that there are millions of people out there that have it harder than I do. This mentality has helped me stay blessed, and venture into a number of things, including contact sports, jobs, and other physically demanding activities doctors told me I should avoid doing. Nothing, including this disease, was going to keep me from living my most authentic life.
In Elementary school, when I was in the Second Grade, I became very ill with, at that time, an undiagnosed condition. One of the symptoms I was having were severe ear infections. When the time came to put tubes in my ears, my doctor had done a series of bloodwork. Shortly after, I found out that my bloodwork was way off, and something was wrong.
Before performing surgery on my ears to introduce the tubes, the Doctors worked tirelessly to figure out why my blood levels were abnormal. Following the release and early testing of my blood, I was sent to Rainbow’s Baby and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. What was meant to be a short stay ended up being weeks longer because my first liver biopsy revealed terrible news?
I vividly remember waking up on the table in the ICU, later on finding out that I had almost bled to death during what was supposed to be a routine biopsy. I was then placed on the transplant list because I was in such critical condition and my liver was failing. From that point on, I was at Rainbow’s for weeks, in and out of the ICU, receiving many tests to figure out a diagnosis, and what medications would keep me stable. Later on, during my hospital stay, I was diagnosed with a liver disease called “Auto-Immune Hepatitis.” There’s a lot of information I could get into on my condition, but the main cause of concern this life-threatening illness does is that it attacks all the other organs in the body. For example, my liver had caused my spleen to swell to three times the normal size, and any mild impact from that point on would have caused it to rupture, which could have led to mass internal bleeding, widespread infection, or death. After I was released from the hospital, my parent’s and I were told to be cautious about the activities I participated in, so any hard blows to my side could be avoided. While taking the doctor’s warnings seriously, my parent’s also understood that I never wanted to be in a position where I have to limit myself physically.
Over the years, with of course a guard protecting my belly area, I’ve got to play soccer, baseball, basketball, and volleyball. Over the last 17 years, this disease has never impacted my potential physically or mentally. Time has come however where I definitely need at least part of a new one. Luckily, the Cleveland Clinic has gotten a handful of volunteers who are in the process of seeing if they are a match. All I need now is assistance with the costs of the surgery, other follow-up procedures, and post-transplant care.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. All the love I’ve received thus far has been heart-warming, and your compassion has filled me with tons of joy. Thank you for everyone who took the time to read this, and I hold in esteem your continued support as I prepare for my partial liver transplant in the near future.
Love,
“M”