Dave Blackbird

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.  As some of you know Dave was diagnosed with liver cancer in June.  His only option is to have a liver transplant.  We are currently working with the Mayo Clinic's Transplant team in Rochester, Mn.  Dave has had a lot of complications in the last 4 months and has been hospitalized 9 times but he is staying optimistic.  He has End stage liver failure, hepatic encephalopathy(memory problems), asites(fluid retention in the abdomen), a secondary tumor on his liver, severe osteoporosis which has caused 21 spinal fractures and at least one fractured rib.  He also has a spot on his lung they have to watch for 3 to 6 months.  It is suspicious for cancer but we are praying it is nothing.  Because of the shortage of organ donors it's very difficult to get on the list if you have any other cancers or medical conditions.
He has had vertebroplasty on all 5 of his lower vertebrae and is scheduled to have more vertebroplasty on his upper spine on Tuesday to repair hopefully 5 more.  
Please keep him in your prayers and we will try to keep this up to date.