Journeys

JOURNEYS

December

“Amasa would like you — to go to a different dialysis clinic” Dr A. says at the next session.

“OK. Why?”

“We can discuss that later. Can you go to the San Carlos clinic for a while?”

“Sure. Since I stopped using the catheter, I am not as nervous with new technicians. Before it was pretty scary when a different RN would hook up and clean the catheter. That direct connection to my heart is a little too powerful. Better than the neck catheter though”

“You realize you are dead right? What could they have done to your vestigial heart?”

“I didn’t say it was rational”

A number of members — of my addiction-recovery program are now deceased. These are people who had kidney and liver failure, and were either patiently waiting for a transplant or already had a transplant. A liver transplant is no guarantee of life. A lot of things can go wrong.

The body can reject the liver, and then you need a second or third one to get one (if any) that are accepted. Kind of like cats: sometimes they just don’t like you and you need to get some more until one is a match.

The body can be too traumatized by the transplant and die from the operation. This is a real problem because you are ranked higher in priority the sicker you are. So generally the most sick get transplants first. It is like playing chicken though, because if you get too sick they won ’t do the transplant either.

The body can simply get terribly ill due to the drugs you need to take post-transplant. To prevent liver rejection, a patient takes immunosuppressants. That is: the drugs _turn off_ your immune system. That is nice and friendly for the newly invited liver, but is also an open invitation to many uninvited bacteria and viruses. Over time