| My Liver Transplant |
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Page 2 of 9 Now the real beginning of this saga was in the mid 198o’s when I was declined for disability insurance. The insurance company declined me because my liver enzymes made it look like I was either an alcoholic or a drug abuser and this sent me back to the doctors to see what was going on. They took the Sonogram and the CT scan and that was the first time I was told that I had liver cancer and that I would die. I was not a drinker and never used drugs so I was really confused about what was going on. A friend of mine recommended another doctor and eventually he found out that I did not have liver cancer. I had what is called NAFL or Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver probably due to my love of corn beef and pastrami and the chemicals I work with as a dentist. So with one bullet dogged, I went on with my life for the next 20 years or so until this hit. True, I was in denial at first. I really felt fine so how could I die in just three months? Of course, I couldn’t sit around and wait to see what would happen, I needed to get to some competent medical people to find out what was really going on. I started with one visit to a local oncologist. He was an idiot and tried to discourage me from going to see the one living legend hepatologist (liver specialist) in Miami because he was “too old”. I never went back to him and tried to get an appointment with the Miami Physician. With some help from our friends, I was in the presence of Dr. Eugene Schiff in less than a week. Dr. Schiff worked my up and sent me to my oncologist, Dr. Lynn Feun. These people are all at UM Sylvester which is one of the outstanding cancer treatment facilities in the world. The doctors at UM Sylvester worked me up with a biopsy and more CT scans. They determined that my tumor was much smaller that they told me at the local Delray hospital and therefor had a much better prognosis. Dr. Fun put me through a treatment called T.A.C.E. which is trans-arterial chemo-embolization. This is a procedure where the go into the femoral artery up to the liver and inject chemotherapy right into the tumor. Then they kill the blood vessels leading to the tumor to prevent regrowth. They then put me on a drug called avastin to again prevent regrowth of the blood vessels into the tumor. This all took a few months and all during this time, Ila and I were constantly on the internet searching out any relevant information pertaining to liver cancer. |
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