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"Another Kim in hospital for liver transplant."
Sagebrush Dan 10002 desperate attention whore postings
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08-27-20, 07:57 PM (EST)
 
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"Another Kim in hospital for liver transplant." |
Another Kim (Kim Kennedy Woody) has posted the following on Facebook. She has been quite ill for a while. Asking for prayers.
Here's her post:VERY long post ahead:
The tl/dr recap. I’M GETTING A LIVER TRANSPLANT and will be sharing this process on a blog that should go live this weekend.
Now, for those of you who are gluttons for long, wordy posts with rambling digressions with some medical stuff, plus witty commentary that would be edited out by any decent writer, here is the post for you. Oh, and I’m sure there are typos and grammar errors. This from an English teacher and former newspaper writer and editor.
So we begin. The scene is Columbia and Middle Tennessee. At the center is spazzy Kim who has too much down time today. She also has cirrhosis, autoimmune hepatitis and a gastric bypass. FYI, these three are a TERRIBLE mix with wine. Damage to liver accelerated. Terminal illness is the result (nothing like reading that the first time). LIVER TRANSPLANT is the only fix…or dead in the next year. I’ll take the transplant for 500K, Alex.
Ascites and jaundice and brain fog, oh my! Note how yellow I look in my profile pic. That is from late 2019. I gave you a preview.
In the past 18 months, I’ve lived something of a roller coaster. I started it with a week in Vandy ICU with a gastric bleed and six different drugs running at the same time at some point—of course I took a picture and I can’t find it now—and was discharged with a follow up to a hepatologist because I clearly had some serious liver issues. Anyone who saw me from Thanksgiving til then with any medical experience could spot it. I was in denial. Then I met Nick on an online dating site of all places (I nearly died the week before, so I was going for broke at that time)…and he has been my rock throughout this time. Then I had to leave teaching because my health was in decline, so I was lost. Thankfully, I was able to go back to work for Dr. Hunter doing what I’ve always done there—a little bit of everything non-medical—but with the flexibility of being out or leaving early and not worrying about a sub. Nick and I went on road trips every weekend and ate at a lot of cool restaurants (and some that were mediocre). For months we never ate a chain place, then we caved to Subway after a long day. It was a hectic time, and not the norm, but it was a welcome distraction from what I knew was looming.
I digress. Job went well, but my health, not so much. I had the worst stomach virus on Earth in October the weekend of the biggest event of my job. I could not leave the hotel. I participated vis text and calls. The Hilton H2 staff was amazing. They brought me towels, tp and Powerade (on the house) and made me so happy that I’d set up a corporate contract with them.
Anyway, from then on, it was a downhill slide. I went to 1099/work from home over Christmas. By March I was on weekly or biweekly blood testing thru Vandy and COVID had hit hard, so I became a hermit on unemployment. I qualified because of the danger to my health AND I wasn’t working more than a few hours per week and was digging a financial hole. Unemployment saved me. April brought another visit to the hospital—MRH this time. Five units of blood over that stay, plus a ##### ton of other IV drugs. I was discharged on a Sunday night. Monday morning, 8.30, my Vandy NP called me…
“Are you ready to consider a liver transplant now?”
I had known deep down that was inevitable, plus numerous doctors had warned me, but I’d been putting it off because I was in denial. As W told me once, I could talk my way out of anything or at least get the best possible outcome. Now, I had no real choice and was scared to death. My MELD score was a 32 out of 40. This is based on a variety of blood tests. Yours is probably 0. My kidneys were in terrible shape and my liver was useless. Paracentesis wasn’t helping long term anymore (that is fluid removal from the stomach because the liver no longer can filter it as normal). I went from having it two times in four years to having 12 liters pulled off every two weeks…basically I would go from 155 to 170+ every two weeks and I looked like a pregnant scarecrow.
So, I said yes and I entered the transplant program. That is the short story. The key takeaway is I AM GETTING A NEW LIVER.
Gluttons, read on.
The process moves WAY faster than I anticipated. There were a lot of tests and evaluations. A mammogram that require a biopsy, so I was scared to death based on family history. It came back clear, so the process went on. I found out that I have autoimmune hepatitis….not a good companion for alcohol. Then I caught the covid about the time I was supposed to do the final step—intensive outpatient therapy to make sure I’d be able to cope post op and not do something stupid like drink again. Finally got cleared. By then it was weekly paracentesis on Fridays and a trip to Franklin the other 4 days. I couldn’t drive any further than the northside of Columbia, so my parents came up to help me out on the days the boys couldn’t take me. Jay, Five and I put a lot of miles on the Jetta over those three weeks except for yet another trip to the hospital and some more blood and ALL the antibiotics. I bribed them with trips to COSTCO and lunch, lol. I had originally thought of IOP as a punishment. I’d had therapy, I had quit drinking back in 2019, and I had read all the books. I was really wrong. It was the best part of this process.
**sidenote/backstory—I didn’t start drinking more than a glass of wine at special occasions until 2009, and even then it was only at social thing. I turned 40 that year. Then it became a bad habit.
I went to rehab in 2015 (I think)—the years of everything are fuzzy, but I do know I went on my birthday and went home on Easter weekend—and it helped me cope, until I didn’t cope anymore. By September, I had quit taking my Wellbutrin and Lamictal (depression and mood swings. I am Bipolar type 2 AND ADHD) Worse, I quit taking my Vivitrol shots (that med wipes out cravings for alcohol and takes away the effect. You’d have to drink until you were throwing up to notice a difference). I went on an amazing trip to Dallas with three school friends and it was a blast (all expenses paid will do that for you). I fell off the wagon and it rolled over me a couple of times as a result of that. Totally my fault and I knew it was stupid, but I do stupid things daily. **
Fast forward to where I left off…2020…long story short now (you can laugh because we all know it isn’t true)…I went on disability aka the cat food budget…and finished IOP two weeks ago. Final psych eval last Monday, then everything turned over to Blue Cross Blue Shield. They have been awesome during this process even when I had issues. They assigned me a nurse to help me wade through transplant and insurance. I was approved on Wednesday (UI had been ignoring calls from 423 because they are usually spam or people wanting to buy Rolling Fields). After the most important blood draw and testing of my life as of today,
I AM OFFICALLY LISTED FOR TRANSPLANT.
No idea how long this will take. On the good side, I am a good candidate for liver transplant. On the bad side, I am a good candidate for a liver transplant.
Today's MELD score is 27--that puts me at the top of Vanderbilt's liver only transplant list. Yikes.
So, we are all on Vandy phone call alert. I have an hour after the call. My backup list has backups. Everyone has cell phones charged and at the ready. Transportation plans are made, go bag is packed except for a toothbrush, but it is on my list--, and the house is being sorted and rearranged for my parents to spend two months here. This is more difficult than I thought because I am so tired 4 days out of 7 that I cannot get off the couch. Thank goodness for amazing kids and Nick and my parents. Sam has to put up with me. Jay drives and cooks, as does Five. They keep me laughing. We make macabre jokes. My dad cleaned out the garage, my mom cooks and cleans for me, they brought up beds for the two bedrooms they’ll be using and bought box springs for both. Nick mows the grass and bought a weedeater for me so he can get it just right, plus he drives me around…even more since he moved to Columbia last month to be closer to work at GM. The man goes to buy my groceries when I am between clicklists and pick up my meds. He has a good relationship with all my kids and knows more about the girlfriend and fiancée (Autumn dates Jay. Rachel and Five just got engaged after three years) than I do because he talks to them in depth, and more importantly, he listens. He is my total opposite, but it works.
I am working on a blog that will go live this weekend, I hope. Link will be shared once I get it up and running (goDaddy hates me lately, as does brain fog). That will be where the endless rambling about this process will be. I’ll use FB to post the big stuff, too, such as the announcement:
I AM GETTING A NEW LIVER
When it happens. There will be pictures on the blog and, maybe, video if I can get my camera, lights, makeup and hair to cooperate as one. Plus I have to get someone to shoot the video, but I’ll have two roomies for the interesting part post-op.
Feel free to stop here. I’m still thinking/writing my usual verbal vomit. Couch time will do that to you.
Not asking for sympathy in this next bit…I did this to myself and I’ve accepted that. Below are just facts with verbose digressions, but I think it is important for people who may end up dealing with this process: hint—DO NOT push yourself to this point. Get help. See a doctor regularly:
This is an illness with a lot of side effects and meds that we are using. Some of them are on hold for now because MY KIDNEYS HATE MY LIVER. I am caught in that crossfire. I still fight the blood thing. My hematocrit was 22 yesterday. Under 20 and I get another transfusion. I can’t eat more than 1500 grams of sodium a day. I can drink all of 1.5 liters a day, plus protein shakes or smoothies. Low sodium means cooking and I am usually too tired. Memory is shot and, if I don’t take lactulose to reduce the ammonia, it will build up on my brain (hepatic encephalopathy (lactulose draws the ammonia to the bowel and disposes of it. No details to follow except I didn’t need the GoLightly before my colonoscopy. Just another day of Lactulose, the world’s sweetest and stickiest medicine ever). The ammonia build up makes you sound crazy. You can also forget how to work a cell phone, argue with the tv because you have the remote backwards and have no clue, and lock yourself out of your laptop before you realize you are yelling to talk to Sam and scaring him to death, so you end up in the ER.
Moving on. My appetite is gone, but I’ve gained weight through swelling and eating candy. Now 165 is the new normal. Better than the 148 when I looked like a skeleton, but I am not thrilled. Thank goodness I have clothes in all the sizes. My blood sugar is all over the place. I freeze to death in doctor’s offices or IOP, so I carry baby blankets (with gray, adultish looking patterns. muslin, oversized, Amazon) I have God awful neuropathy in my feet, so I live in the World’s Best Socks. Seriously, that’s the brand but the cozy collection is perfect—not too tight, but they don’t fall down and they are soft and warm.
I’m not yellow anymore. Woohoo. I’m not pink, either. I’m more of a generic-.49-box of crayons Flesh tone, but I’ll take that—yellow is NOT my color. I was colorized back in the 80s. I know my colors. I have makeup tips for the jaundiced that I will post elsewhere. Paracentesis every week at MRH, followed by an infusion of albumin at the cancer center in the mall (lord, that mall is a joke), so those who have seen me at the cancer center—that’s why. I’m also still immune suppressed, even after the covid, so I stay home. If anyone could catch the covid 2x, it would be me. Hand sanitizer, soap, disposable masks and laundry more regularly are my new staples. I’ve developed hideous nosebleeds, probably due to sinuses. I have an ENT appointment for assessment. I am a Kleenex aficionado for now. I keep a dark towel handy everywhere (my towel-buying obsession in the new house paid off). Hour-long nosebleeds suck. I’m on vitamin K to help with clotting. So far no real change. I also use Afrin to help constrict blood vessels. That does seem to help, but I use it sparingly because all I need is another bad habit.
You can stop reading the novel now. Below are the acknowledgments.
In addition to my family and Nick, I need to give mad props to Vanderbilt and my docs and nurses there, especially Vanderbilt Jenny as we call her-she is my pre transplant listing coordinator. Maury Regional staff, especially the nurses and Dr. Orr (hospitalist who is also doing a fellowship with my doctors at Vandy, so that led to the 8.30 phone call starting this) and the infusion team. MAJOR shout out to the radiology team who deals with me every week for paracentesis—ultrasound techs, radiologists (I’ve lost track of the names, but I think I’ve seen all the docs) and especially the nurses that take care of me (Kelly spoils me. Kevin is awesome). Dr Sikar Reddi who warned me years ago this could happen and knows how to do make an endoscopy sound positive as well as negative. Rolling Hills and, especially Mark, for IOP.
Non-medical--Lisa Edwards for renting the perfect house to me exactly when I need it. My amazon prime and Pampered Chef delivery people. I rarely shop anymore. Dayton Scott for the referral to The World’s Best Socks (company based in Niota, TN, which is my mom’s family’s area). My sister-in-law Jane Woody who steps in when I call. All the people who have been praying for me or thinking about me—I don’t have a list. My super special FB group of friends that have listened to all of this over the past 2 years and still put up with me…that is what almost 20 years (21+ in some cases) of online friendships will do for you.
Thank you for reading and for being my friend. It helps a lot that people humor me, debate with me and entertain me. More than I can say, even in 2500 words. It will be an interesting and expensive and emotional trip, but the outcome is well worth it.  
Transcribed by Sharnina
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aethelstan 4435 desperate attention whore postings
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09-02-20, 11:55 PM (EST)
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4. "RE: Another Kim in hospital for liver transplant." |
Thinking of you, Kim. *hugs*
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kingfish 20740 desperate attention whore postings
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09-20-20, 00:40 AM (EST)
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5. "RE: Another Kim in hospital for liver transplant." |
Wow. Get well. Do rehab. Don't drink and...do anything. Keep writing. I've read that alcoholics make the best writers. I don't necessarily believe that, but through those years, I thought she (You? To whom am I responding? Anyway...) was one of if not the best writer/posters we had. Nice to see that sobriety hasn't dimmed the skill. To whomever gave up his/her liver, AnotherKim says thanks! So do we all. P.S. Did I get the 'whom's right? Buzzard Island Basher Barry
Danger zone below when windy
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