Ivelisse’s Liver Transplant Journey

Hi everyone, as those of you may know my mother was diagnosed and has been battling cirrhosis of the liver since April of this year.

For those who don't know, liver cirrhosis is end stage liver disease and even though the liver can regenerate and repair itself, once it reaches this point it is no longer reversible and can only get worse or stay the same, and can be FATAL. When someone has liver cirrhosis there are multiple other side affects that make it miserable. Some of those are sharp stabbing pains in the abdomen, vomiting blood or passing blood in stool from dilated varicose veins in the Gl tract that rupture and bleed, severe insomnia, the build up of ammonia in your blood stream which then goes to your brain causing severe confusion as if one were demented aka hepatic encephalopathy and the build up of fluid in the legs/arms/and abdomen. When the fluid builds up in the abdomen it's called ascites. The fluid can only be removed by a procedure called a paracentesis which is where a catheter is placed in the abdomen and the fluid is sucked out and drained. My mom has had 11 of these done. Since her symptoms are severe enough she is seeing a liver doctor from Tampa General Hospital Transplant Clinic and she is undergoing multiple to test so she can get a new and healthy liver. Along with the cirrhosis she was also diagnosed with primary biliary cholangitis/cirrhosis which only sped up the liver failure process. She will be out of work for a while and will have to take anti rejection medication for life following the long and complex surgery. As you all know healthcare is not cheap. These funds will be used to help with her bills, regular and medical. Anything helps as this will be a long journey to get her back to health and potentially save her life. Feel free to reach out to Jasmine or I with any questions. We also have Zelle, Cashapp and can meet up for cash donations. Thank you.