BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

15 Years

So, today would have been 15 years out for my mom's transplant.  She had been looking forward to this milestone.  Making 15 years on a transplanted organ is very odds against you kind of deal.

When an organ is transplanted the patient needs to go on something called immunosuppressant drugs.  This takes your immune system down so that the immune response to an infection is significantly reduced.  This means that when someone gets infected with a pathogen, such as a flu virus or a bacteria, they won't be able to fight off the infection on their own and as well they have a higher chance of getting infected in the first place.  Generally antibiotics are needed to fight the infection.  Additionally one of the tricks to help a patient fight an infection is to lower the immunosuppressant drugs in the short term to allow the immune system to ramp back up and fight.  But the problem with this is that it will start to attack the transplanted organ.  So it's a very fine line.  Monitoring the blood levels of the organ that has been transplanted and watching for a rejection while the person fights the infection.

This was my mom's life for the last 15 years until she passed away in November.

Today was the day that she was transplanted all the way back in 2001.  I'm sad that she didn't make it to the 15 year mark... But at the same time, she fought and hung on for a long time.  It's hard to be a transplant patient.  There are a lot of restrictions and a lot of meds to take.  Your lifestyle changes fairly significantly.  So... There's cause to celebrate that she beat the odds and hung on as long as she did!

Today coincidentally is also my grandfather's birthday.  He passed away in 2007.  So almost 10 years ago that we lost him.  My grandmom passed shortly after my mom was transplanted in the fall of 2001.

I miss all three of them very much.  I'll continue to observe the dates and remember them.  Today will be my mom's liver birthday... The day that she got a second chance at life.  And today will also always be my grandfather's birthday as well.  To celebrate the life that he lived and keep his memory alive and well.

So this blog post is dedicated to my mom and my grandparents.