Today is July 3, 2021 one year ago today I woke up in New York Presbyterian Columbia university hospital in upper Manhattan. I had liver failure I was completely yellow and jaundice my legs were so swollen I had cracks in my legs with oozing coming out of my body. I found out that I needed a liver transplant that I wasn’t going to survive more than a week I went through a very heavy detox the doctors implanted tubes on both sides of my stomach and started draining the yellow bile coming out from my body buckets were coming out all day. I was 10% cognizant and didn’t know what was really going on but I do remember them telling me I’m going to need a liver and need it fast. the years of drinking have caught up to me and I completely destroyed my liver. I had cirrhosis of the liver from alcohol. On July 21, 2020 my doctors had come into my room and told me that they have the perfect liver for me a perfect match and that I would be receiving my transplant within 48 hours. It was a 13 hour up operation I lost a tremendous amount of blood I had to get a number of transfusions throughout my operation. I woke up in ICU. after the transplant I find out that the transplanted liver had COVID-19 in it and that I now had COVID-19 from the new liver that was just transplanted in my body. I went on the ventilator for seven days once I came off of it my lungs collapsed and had to be put back on the ventilator for an additional four days when I woke up from that I had septic shock and I had high sepsis that caused me to go into a bad shock. they were treating my Covid with remdesivir, convalescent plasma and high dose of steroids. my fever went up to 106.8 they then put me on a different bed that was a freezer bed to lower my fever. they put bags of ice on my head, under my arms, under my legs to try and drop the fever after about a week the fever went away and the Covid subsided. but the next challenge that arose was that my liver rejected the body & my body then rejected the liver. I went back on the ventilator for two days when I woke up from the third time it had gotten a little better. I was in bed in the hospital for 3 1/2 months without standing up never to get up. I was pooping myself and peeing myself the whole time while I was in the hospital in bed. having to get cleaned by the nurses and bathed by the nurses. when I finally made it out of ICU I was moved to the transplant floor which was like heaven to me because it was so beautiful so nice I had my own room it was overlooking the Hudson river and I was a few doors down from the Bill Clinton room where Bill Clinton stays for his hospital treatments it was an absolutely beautiful floor in the hospital. ICU was a complete nightmare. I have now woken up and made it to the transplant floor I never thought that I would make it there. when they told me I needed to sit up from bed I couldn’t even do it because of the laying in bed for over three months never standing up I had to learn how to sit up in bed then sit up at the end of the bed and then stand up from the bed. My athropy was so severe. the first time I tried to stand up from my bed I collapsed onto the physical therapist. I had numerous physical therapy to learn how to walk again the atrophy on my body was substantial. I felt as if I was Pinocchio with Geppetto holding the strings. I had no core. I was so weak and when I stood up I just collapsed it’s an unbelievable feeling not knowing how to walk. just learning how to take that first step how joyous and monumental that was and then making it over a few more steps each day and each day the physical therapists his name was Tom would come in to my room do exercises on my legs in the bed and he would tell me to do you would help me sit up stand up and walk a couple of more steps every day until I could finally use the walker. I could walk out of the room and up and down the hallways which was quite challenging. I finally made it out of acute therapy physical therapy and I was discharged from the hospital on September 27, 2020. I have not breathe fresh air in over three months I have not stepped outside in over three months. my wife was there with me in the hospital every single day. she drove in from our house in Staten Island into Manhattan and was with me every single day. she is absolutely amazing. I love her endlessly. I would cry when she left and I would cry when she arrived. she is my rock. I remember it was August 11, 2020 which is me and my wife’s wedding anniversary and she walked in my room and I was sitting in my chair in the room. this is the first time she saw me out of bed in months she couldn’t believe how I was sitting up she was so happy and I made her so proud. I had a long rehabilitation in front of me. Thank you for reading my journey.
