Welcome to our CaringBridge website! We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place on Meagan's medical journey in battling chronic liver failure and Hepatorenal syndrome (HRS), resulting in the need for a full liver transplant. Background: Around July 2021, Meagan started experiencing painful tingling and numbness in her hands, wrists, and abdomen along with loss of appetite, exhaustion, and extreme nausea that resulted in two ER visits. The pain was so hard on her body, she had to stop working as common day to day activities she was performing could no longer be completed. While seeking help from her doctors to determine the causation of these symptoms, doctors believed she had contracted Lymes disease. After a few months of initial treatment for Lymes without improvement, it was found that it wasn't Lymes disease but instead her body was suffering from severe alcohol use disorder, previously known as alcohol dependence or alcoholism, which is a chronic disease as defined by the CDC. After meeting with her primary care doctor and therapist, she decided it was time to tackle not only her alcoholism, but deepening depression and anxiety from certain traumatic experiences across her 34 years. Pain in which she sought relief from by drinking. While in process committing to inpatient detox and treatment, unfortunately on December 1, 2021, Meagan was admitted from the ER to UW Health in Madison, WI for lethargy, nausea, no appetite, full body weakness, and episodes of fainting. After many tests conducted at UW Health, Meagan was diagnosed with chronic liver failure (cirrhosis) and Hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) and is in need of a full liver transplant. After UW Health conducted a liver transplant evaluation to determine if she was a transplant candidate, she sadly was denied due to an unfortunate stigma on those who suffer alcoholism against UW Health's transplant criteria. While extremely difficult to hear of their decision, please note Meagan's care staff at UW Health were fantastic to her during her stay and put all efforts into treating her with care and respect. Her family is not ready to throw in the towel this easily and want to see the once bright, feisty, headstrong beautiful soul we know as Meagan shine again. Therefore, we are actively seeking a second opinion at St. Lukes Aurora in Milwaukee. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. To assist with the growing expenses of her treatment and lack of income flow, any donations towards her care can be made at the GoFundMe linked below. Thank you for visiting and please consider joining her support team by donating. Much love - Meagan's family
https://gofund.me/8e66d398 
