Tracy Snyder

On March 11, 2014 I got the call of a lifetime. A healthy young man who had decided one day long ago to become an organ donor, met his untimely death. With his final breath, he gave me life with a gently used, healthy liver. He gave my four children (two with special needs) their mother back, and my super hero husband, his wife for life!

My recovery is going well. It is a long road, but I am on it. I walk more and more every day. This will be a life long journey of medical interventions and daily handfuls of medication. I am completely immune suppressed. So, going anywhere, or being around other people is a nonnegotiable. My children shower and disinfect before coming in to say hello to mommy. Best case scenario will be in June, 3 months post-surgery, I will be able to drive a little and be one on one with people outside of my house. Things like the grocery store, Church, schools, or big office settings will be 6 months with a mask to one year mask free. All together a timeframe of 2-3 years of my life being flipped upside down. How did this all happen?

On August 2, 2012, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Liver Disease, an extremely rare genetic disease. A week later I found out that I would need a liver transplant, the only treatment. At the time I was added to the transplant list we thought it would be about 6 months before the surgery. Although monetarily expensive, in a fairly short time, I would be in recovery. Instead, I was actively on the list for 15 months and 2 days.

In June 2013, I was diagnosed with Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE), a debilitating neuro-condition which is a result of liver disease. I had consistently increasing pain due to my liver expanding and the HE continued to progress. HE took away my ability to drive (try that with 4 young kids) and resulted in my inability to work. It is difficult for me to accept help sometimes, but as you can imagine, this has altered our family’s life and bills in an astronomical way. We are going to need some help to get through this.

This disease is very rare, so rare that our transplant surgeon, who is top ranked and has done over 2.000 liver transplants, has done ten transplants on a polycystic livers. He was confident that the surgery would be a success, the point is that this is VERY RARE! After six hours of surgery, 4 hours just to get the sick one out, a collapsing lung, and several people to lift the polycycstic organ, it was a success. A healthy liver is the size of two fists and weighs 8-12lbs. The liver they removed was 43 pounds and had compressed every other organ in my body.

I have the best family in the world. My husband, Jim, has stayed by my side emotionally, physically, and financially holding our family together like glue. Faith (11), Sarah (11), Christian (9), and John (8) have all been down some rough roads in their lives, but they continue to be happy, healthy, and very active. This condition, along with the HE has been debilitating for me, and for my family.

This organization and this website provides the opportunity for TAX DEDUCTIBLE (non profit) contributions to assist with medical expenses not otherwise covered by insurance. Below, I have written a small sampling of how funds will be used. This is but a fraction of the reality, which I try not to think about too much. Please take the time to see how this all works. HelpHOPELive manages the funds to be sure it is only being used for what it is intended for.

$35 pays for a Dr. Copay
$60 pays for 1 of 19 lifelong monthly prescriptions
$125 pays for a night’s hotel for Jim during my hospital stay
$400 pays for caregivers for 20hrs to care for me post op
$700 pays for the first months prescriptions
$1000 pays for the first month’s labs and blood work post op
$4,300 pays for our out of pocket for the $100,000 surgery
Surgeons, hospital, anesthesia, follow ups are an unknown factor.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and consider making a donation. Also, be sure to check if your company does charity donation matching.

Love, Tracy