We want to start by extending a giant THANK YOU to everyone who has been there to support us- logistically and emotionally- and to everyone who we know would have been there in a heartbeat. While some of you know bits and pieces of what Ted has been going through over the last year, we have kept things fairly private. You never know how you will respond until something like this happens and, in our case, this is what worked best for us as we juggled all the uncertainty. Now that we have clearer answers, we decided to create this Caring Bridge to update everyone on where we are and to hopefully find help to save Ted’s life.
To make a long story short, in July of 2022 Ted went to urgent care when the increasing fatigue and feeling "off" he had been experiencing for several weeks hit a new high. Based on his blood work, the doctors couldn't believe he was conscious, much less walking and talking--- they were even more surprised when they found out he had driven himself there... The next five days were a whirlwind- with several days in the ICU and countless tests and scans. We learned at that time that his liver was functioning very poorly. Fast forward, the next 4 months brought lifestyle changes along with four more week-long hospitalizations and multiple procedures as his team worked through the complications and got his medications managed and his health stabilized. He is now being treated by an amazing team of specialists at the U of MN and the last four months have, thankfully, been calmer and brought clarity to where we are and where we are headed.
Ted needs a liver transplant. The good news, liver transplants have a very high success rate and, with positive factors like his age on his side, following a successful surgery his life expectancy could return to almost normal. The challenging news, he will soon be placed on the long list of people waiting for a cadaver liver. This list is prioritized based on level of illness severity, the sickest people on the list who are a match get the liver. With his current symptoms, he would be about the middle of the wait list. We could wait for months to years on pins and needles while we worked to minimize the negative impact on the rest of his organs and health and hoped that he matched while he remained healthy enough to have the surgery.
We are fortunate, however, there is another option. Ted remains, at this time, just healthy enough to still be able to receive a liver from a living donor. A living donor can donate a portion of their liver-- with both their remaining liver and the portion donated regenerating into TWO full sized livers in a matter of weeks/months. It’s actually pretty amazing. Any adult, age ~50 or under, with type "O+" OR “O-“ blood type could possibly be a donor for him. We have unfortunately learned that no immediate family members are a match. If we were to find a donor, all of the donor’s medical costs would be covered, and we would work to help cover lost wages and other expenses. Additional information about the process can be found here Living Donor Liver Transplant (
https://mhealthfairview.org/treatments/living-donor-liver-transplant) and Living Liver Donation English (asts.org) (
https://asts.org/resources/living-liver-donation-english#.ZBpLrxTMJD-).
If you would consider donating, the next step would be to register here (
https://mhealth.donorscreen.org/register/now). This step is anonymous- you can get screened, ask questions, and gather additional information about your potential eligibility without us knowing/ feeling any pressure so that in the end you can make the decision that works best for you. We realize what a GIANT ask this is, however, we also feel we owe it to ourselves, and our children, to put this out in the universe so that people can decide if this is something they would be willing to consider. To put it directly- you could save his life.
Thank you in advance to everyone who has/will send positive energy and love our way. We ask that this Caring Bridge site and the information that we are sharing be kept off of social media, but the site can be shared with others who know and care about Ted who may be interested in current and future updates. In addition, our children know that Daddy has been sick, and in the hospital, but they do not know many of the details, so we appreciate your discretion. We could not have gotten this far alone, and we will depend on the strength and the love from everyone around us to get through these next steps too. Overall, we are in good spirits. We're managing symptoms and side effects, putting our energy toward what we can control and working to make the best of a bad situation. We are looking forward to warmer weather and the end of the never-ending cold and flu season so that we can connect and spend more time with all of you.
Love, Ted & Lindsay
