Weekend update

I wish I would have watched Saturday Night Live in it's heyday. But I think I was a bit too young to appreciate the humor. Land Shark was a favorite and Chevy doing the news. "I'm Chevy Chase, and your not...." I love it. Good stuff.

I had a pretty good weekend. We went to Kennywood for it's fright nights. They open at 7:00 pm and only have some of the rides running, in a darkened amusement park. Pretty fun. Then they turn all the big buildings into haunted mazes and have the employees in costumes etc. Unfortunately the lines are long and as an adult, it's not like it was as a kid. I know there aren't things like goblins, walking skeletons and zombies. But, it's a good production and I appreciate the hard work they put into it. For the kids, it's the anticipation of the unknown. They get surprised by the people jumping out at them from a dark corner and their memory lasts about .05 seconds because they get surprised around the next corner. I laughed more than anything.

We also had the homecoming parade and two football games this weekend. I shot pictures of the homecoming court at halftime of the HS game. Believe it or not, I didn't shoot any action shots of the youth game that night. It was pretty nice. I watched the cheerleaders do their cheers and the dancers during halftime and the scoreboard become so lopsided that even the parent of the players weren't watching much of the game.

The recipient of my possible liver donation is having another test later today. Like I said last week, we probably won't know anything until late this week. In which I will be traveling.

I got a pamphlet form the Starzl center where they do the liver transplants. All the info is available form their web site so I will regurgitate some of it for you all. To read it form them go here http://livertransplant.upmc.com/LivingLiverDonor.htm

Things I will go through: physical exam, blood tests, chest x-ray, CT scan, ultrasound of my liver ECG and EKG and a psych eval (that ought to be fun).

Today, close to 18,000 people are listed for a liver transplant in the United States. Each year about 9,000 new cases are added to this list, but only 5,000 livers are donated for cadaveric liver transplantation. About 1,400 people die each year waiting for a new liver.

After the Procedure (this is actually taken form the recipient portion, but essentially, the surgery for me is very much the same.
* breathing tube until you can breathe independently
* IV fluids and medication
* bladder catheter to drain urine

Possible Complications
* rejection of transplanted liver
* excessive bleeding
* infection
* bile-duct obstruction or leak
* allergy to anesthesia
* blood clots in the major arteries

(More from the recipient side)
Recovery time varies and may depend, in part, on your overall health before the transplant. Most patients are able to return to normal or near-normal activities 6 to 12 months after transplantation.

It is my understanding my surgery will be about 5 hours long and I will be hospitalized for about a week. I won't be able to lift anything over 10 pounds for a while. It is suggested that I will be out of work for 6-8 weeks.

The liver will return to it's pre op size in about two months which was pretty surprising to me. No alcohol for a year. Like that will be a problem for me. LOL

Now I am wondering if I go through the process and for some reason cannot be a match for the intended. Should I continue for a total stranger? That will be something I need to consider as well.