| My Liver Transplant |
|
|
|
Page 3 of 9 The only cure for liver cancer is surgery. Sometimes a small tumor can be removed but tumors like mine require a total liver transplant for survival. Not everyone is eligible for the transplant and it really depends on the size of the tumor and the number of tumors present as well as the presence or absence of metastatic disease (which means it has already spread). Fortunately, Dr. Feun got my tumor to shrink significantly so that I was within the criteria for a transplant. I had no metastasis and my liver was actually functioning extremely well. At this point, I was a good candidate for the transplant. Then, another curve ball... My insurance company said that in order for me to get full coverage for the procedure, I had to go to one of their “in network” facilities which were located in Gainesville and Tampa. Gainesville is about 5 hours away. What could we do? We were told if we were going to have the transplant down here, it might cost us up to a million dollars out of pocket. So Ila and I make an appointment and go up to Shands Medical Center in Gainesville and spend three days getting evaluated. They have the same information that my oncologist has but for some reason, they “felt” my situation was worse than it actually was. The head hepatologist there scared the shit out of Ila by telling the Micky Mantle story: Micky Mantle was an alcoholic who developed cirrhosis of the liver and then cancer. He was accepted for a liver transplant even though they knew he was a very poor candidate and got a liver within one day of getting onto the donor list. He died 3 months later because he had metastatic disease when they did the transplant and they did it anyway. The doctors at Shands were telling me that they thought that there was more than they could see there and that I might die a “horrible death” within three months. Even so, they agreed to give me an out of criteria liver (sort of like a second hand liver that would not normally be accepted for transplant). |
|||||||||||