My dad's fiance took some common antibiotic in February to help speed up the recovery from a bad case of the flu. (I don't understand why a doctor would give her an antibiotic for a virus, but whatever.) Apparently, Andrea is one of those in that .5% or whatever that had a severe reaction to it, and it shut her liver down.
About three weeks after she took the medication she was out for Sunday breakfast with my Dad- something they do every Sunday and always have. (They go to Spires at the bottom of Nohl Ranch Road right before the freeway - the 55? I think it's Nohl Ranch and Santa Ana Canyon. Been so long since I've lived there I'm rusty!
Anyway, she asked my dad if her eyes looked kind of yellow... he said that yeah, they were. Over the next couple of days her entire body turned a dark yellow and she started getting really sick.
Initially when they took her into the hospital, they thought she had this really rare disorder where your body can only process a certain amount of Iron in your lifetime and then your liver just dies. So they had all of these dietary restrictions and she couldn't eat anything with iron in it anymore. She was really freaked out and depressed and basically reacted to that by not eating at all, so that made her sicker.
Eventually they figured out she was actually in liver failure, and after a month in the hospital she finally got a transplant. Good timing too, I guess because she was losing motor control, cognotive thought... not recognizing people, etc. My dad let it slip she was having to wear a diaper too because she couldn't get out of bed and she was getting infections from her cath... Ugh. Her blood pressure was really bad before the surgery as well... about 70/40 most of the time...
Transplant was in the middle of the night on Monday and it went great! She is at UCLA's Liver Transplant Center or whatever and I guess has a big fan base with the hospital staff because she's one of the success stories. She's getting better and better every day and started eating solid food today or yesterday I think. Just a little bit, jello, etc, but she was able to do something other than IV's and the rare sip of water. What is weird about this whole thing is that apparently she has gained 5 pounds since being in the hospital, so I guess they said she is retaining a ton of fluid.
Her incision is 14 inches across horizontally and has a drain in it right now. They also had some other thing in there... forget what it's called but it's helping to hold everything where it is supposed to be and has to be removed surgerically. She has already had one surgery since the transplant and has to have one more to finish up and take the rest of the stuff out. She still has the PICC line in, and they are taking blood several times a day and monitoring her for a ton of stuff. I guess the transplant spikes your blood sugar so they had to put her on insulin to control it. It's on a constant rollercoaster so I think they are checking it every hour while they figure out her dosages.
So, it is all going good, and her memory is coming back. Apparently she can't remember the passwords to any of her accounts for anything so she is playing in my Dad's email and things until it comes back.
I think this whole thing really freaked my Dad out... and I also think that it was probably a WHOLE LOT worse than he let on. He has sent us email updates every night on her condition for the last month and I haven't really talked to him much at all on the phone because I know he is so stretched out already trying to take care of Andrea. Andrea's son Joe, who went to HS with Kristin P. and me (these are the Cockrell's who lived near Kaiser by you guys.. that is who my dad is engaged to!!), Joe and my Dad have been taking home care classes together at UCLA so they can take care of her when she comes home, which will happen in about another 2.5 weeks at a minimum, if everything goes perfectly without hiccups.
So, not the greatest story, but that's what's going on. I am pretty far removed from it, being in Nor Cal and everything, but it still stresses me, and I know I am edgy even though I am emotionally distant from it. But it does upset me because it upsets my Dad and Andrea is a very nice person, it is terrible this happened to her. Also not being able to talk to my Dad for a couple of months is a big adjustment to me!
So... make sure you stick that sticker on your license to be a donor! Remember your body is just a shell... your soul is whole whether or not you save lives by donating...
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