Kayla Kuperus

Welcome to my Caringbridge website. A lot has taken place in the last two months that I never thought my family or I would ever experience.

At this time I would just like to say thank you to all the people we had to ask short term, very fast favors. This is our journey, thank you all for waiting so patiently for more information. 

Near the end of July, I would get nauseated every time I would eat food. Jacob and I put the the thought to the back our minds because of a stomach surgery I had that makes me queasy sometimes. By the beginning of August, I couldn't take one bite of food and keep it down. I was kind of starting to feel crummy, but I avoided the doctor for another week. (Yes, I'm the stubborn one here)

After a weekend at work that was particularly exhausted and in a lot of pain, Jacob finally convinced me to go to the walk-in clinic. I did, more to appease him than anything. To my surprise, the doctor brought me back to a consult room and said a lot of my labs were out of range and he wanted me to be admitted to the hospital for further evaluation. The overnight follow-up Jacob and I were expecting now extending to a full 15 days of stay in the hospital. 

The results we received from that visit were that I have severe pancreatitis, which was pushing fluid back into my liver, causing liver problems as well.

I followed up with my primary doctor for repeat labs, which were showing worse levels, and my skin and the whites of my eyes had started to become jaundice (yellow, significant with liver problems). So I was re-admitted to the hospital in Fargo the 21st of September, and Jacob was by the bed the whole time cracking Scrubs jokes while we waited for more tests and biopsies, all that said my pancreas and liver were very sick. 

So sick, in fact, that on the 4th of October I took an ambulance transfer to Methodist Hospital/Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minn. 

More tests showed my kidneys were starting to shutdown as well. With the combination of the extra fluid now all over my body, and both imminent liver failure leading to kidney failure, as well as my age, gave me transplant score of very high and put me at the top of the the transplant list. Now all we had to do was wait for a match.

Around noon on the 21st of Oct. we found out that I had been matched with a donor liver and I went into surgery at 11:00 p.m. that Friday night. I came out of surgery and was doing well, but they found some large blood clots and I had to go back into surgery on Saturday to have them cleaned up and have some minor repairs made to avoid clotting issues. 

I am currently taking things really slowly and recovering properly. I will be taking immuno-suppressants for the rest of my life so my body doesn't reject my new liver. 

The most thankful, most grateful thing I can say is for the rest of my life. Someone else gave their life and I have another chance to keep living.  

Thanks for all of your well-wishes, prayers and patience, as it has been a very fast-flowing, difficult last two months.