We were shocked to find out about a year and a half ago that Jay has liver disease (cirrhosis) and that very little of his liver was functioning. This shocked us because Jay does not have any of the normal causes of cirrhosis. He has never been a big drinker, is not overweight, no autoimmune diseases, etc. Doctors tested for all and were unable to determine the exact cause. During this time, Jay started having some related symptoms, extreme fatigue, nausea, night sweats, and encephalopathy but the most serious symptom was that he developed esophageal varices. These are bulging veins in the esophagus brought on because the scarred liver puts pressure on these veins. He had these varices banded to prevent bleeds, however; new varices formed or the bands came off and he vomited a significant amount of blood several times. These bleeds can be life-threatening. It was because of these bleeds that they expedited adding him to the liver transplant list.
