by Susan Roark

Created on: March 25, 2009   Last Updated: June 03, 2009

We have so much to be thankful that it is hard to put into words. We first and foremost thank God for his steadfast love through the tough times. We thank the donor and their family. We thank all of the wonderful friends new and old who came out to help us in our time of need. We take our hats off to all of the doctors, nurses, technicians and all of the medical staff who make a transplant possible.

There are many pros to having a liver transplant, just as there are many different types of people who have transplants. If you were to talk to a group of transplant recipients you would find that the main pro is staying a live.

Being able to continue to live and love.

Being able to give back to others through your experiences.

My husband underwent his liver transplant eleven years ago. He was an Deputy Sheriff when he became ill, and had always been healthy. During the process to find out if my husband qualified to receive a liver transplant we were surprised to realize how little people including ourselves knew about the liver and a liver transplant. Many people thought that you had to be a drug user or an alcoholic to have your liver cirrhosis, even some thought going on a dialysis machine was used to clean a bad liver. We as others found out that their were many causes for the liver to start dying. The cause for my husband's failed liver was never discovered but two theories are one the fact that he took a lot of aspirin due to migraines. The other is when as a Deputy Sheriff he went to an accident where there was a chemical spill in which he inhaled quite a lot of the chemical.

To understand the pros and cons of a liver transplant a person needs to understand what the liver does.

The liver manufactures proteins, including albumin which helps to maintain the volume of blood and blood clotting factors.

The liver also metabolizes and stores carbohydrates, which are used for the source of the sugar or glucose in the blood that red blood cells and the grain use.

The liver detoxifies the body by metabolizing environmental toxins, drugs and alcohol to name a few.

The liver forms and secrets bile that contains bile acids to aid in the intestinal absorption of fats and the fat-soluble vitamins A,D,E and K.

The liver by metabolizing the potentially harmful biochemical products produced by the body, such as bilirubin from the breakdown of old red blood cells and ammonia from the breakdown of protein

One of the major cons of a liver transplant is the knowledge

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>