An Early Sunrise: My New Beginning

By Rick Yeager

An Early Sunrise: My New Beginning is my journal written during my four-year battle with cirrhosis of the liver, hepatic encephalopathy, and liver cancer. With the heartfelt gift of life, my hero won my battle and gave me a second chance at life. I had the opportunity to express my feelings and emotions during my hellacious journey. I wanted to inspire others who are battling a terminal illness to fight, to never lose faith, and to hang on to hope. Writing this book was my sanctuary, finding peace within by expressing how I felt while I was dying. Many do not have the opportunity to receive a lifesaving organ transplant; instead they lose their lives waiting for an organ.

There is a mass shortage of organ donors registered to give others the opportunity of a second chance at life. An organ donor can save up to eight lives. My hero lives on in me by giving me the gift of life. Consider becoming an organ, tissue, and eye donor, and become someone’s Hero. You may register to become an organ donor at Registerme.org or at your local DMV.

Donate life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796015171

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 by Rick Yeager.

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-7960-1519-5

                Softcover         978-1-7960-1518-8

                eBook              978-1-7960-1517-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 02/08/2019

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CONTENTS

WHAT IS CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER AND HEPATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY

Liver Disease Sucks!

My Journey Battling Cirrhosis Of The Liver, Hepatic Encephalopathy, And Liver Cancer

First Visit To The Transplant Clinic

Family And Friends: Donate Life, Become A Donor

Hospital Admission With Fluid Retention And Ascites

Hospital Admission April 22, 2015—Welcome To My World Of Diabetes And Renal Failure

The Demon Within (Hepatic Encephalopathy)

It’s Sad When Your Grandkids Asks If You Are Going To Die

Low Platelets: What Do I Do?

Hepatic Encephalopathy: The Demon Is Back

Second Ultrasound Of My Liver

Having A Good Time With Family

Anxiety Walks Into My Life

Pain, Pain, Go Away

My Mirror Is My Best Friend: When I Cry, It Never Laughs

My Meld Score Dropped To Eleven

Reality Hits Home

Chronic Kidney Disease: Visit To The Kidney Specialist

Colonoscopy And Endoscopy Time

My Demon: Another Day Battling Hepatic Encephalopathy

Hospitalization: Acute Pancreatitis And Inflammation Of The Chest Wall

Hospital Admission For Inflammation And Infection In The Intestines

I’m On This Journey, And I Will Not Give Up!

Family Time

Good Time With Ashton Cooking My Mom’s Chicken And Dressing

Another Day With Hepatic Encephalopathy: Bad With Numbers

Platelets Maybe? Nose Bleeding, Rectal Bleeding

My Great-Granddaughter Skylar’s Second Birthday Celebration

Diabetic Medications Are Killing My Kidneys

My First Support Group At The Transplant Center

Happy Fifty-Ninth Birthday To Me

Christmas Is Near 2016

Happy New Year, 2016

Hospital Admission At Methodist South

Second Hospital Visit, January 2016

Third Hospital Admission 02/01/2016

Fourth Hospital Admission On 2/04/2016

Never Will I Give Up

Received A Call From The Transplant Center

Almost There For My Transplant

My First Living Donor Rejected

The Call To Start My Evaluation Process

Finally I Get Someone To Listen

April 5, 2016—A Miracle In The Making

My Second Liver Biopsy

Team Rick T-Shirts

The Waiting Game

Each Day Closer But So Far Away

My First Visit With My Surgeon With My Son And Granddaughter

New Labs Drawn For New Meld Score

Ascites: Transported To Methodist Transplant Center By Ambulance

My Living Donor Is Being Tested For A Possible Match To Be My Donor

A Post From A Distant Cousin On Facebook

I Have Fought The Fight. I Will Win My Battle

Hospitalization For Stroke At Methodist University

Back To Healthsouth Rehabilitation For Physical Therapy

Four Days After Discharge, I Was Admitted For Breast Cancer

Went To My Neurologist To Get An Approval For Transplant Due To My Stroke

Back To Work On January 17, 2017

Hospitalization On June 24, 2017

Nomination For The 2017 Organ Donor Advocate Of The Year Award With Mora

July 16, 2017—Possible New Living Donor

Semicomatose—August 21, 2017

Hospitalized For Acute Renal Failure For The Third Time

Multilisted For Transplant In Jackson, Mississippi

Diagnosed With Hepatocellular Carcinoma

A Donate Life Christmas 2017

My First Call For Transplant In Jackson

This Warrior Feels Defeated

My Possible Living Liver Donor, 2018

Intestinal Bleed Taken To Grenada

I Receive The Call In Memphis

Hospitalization For Dehydration

Searching For My Donor

Meeting My Donor Family

The Gift of Life

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I

dedicate my journal to my loving family: Kelli Yeager (daughter); Anthony Yeager (son); Nicole Ferguson, Sarah Ferguson, Ashton Stewart, Alannah Yeager, Michael Yeager, and Kaelan Yeager (grandchildren); my great-grandchildren; Jimmy Yeager (dad); Chris Yeager (brother); Sharon Griffin (sister), and in memory of my mother, Pauline F. Yeager. This is also lovingly dedicated to Jackie Sanders, Jossie Dunlap, Angie Smith, Terry Mallard, and Courtney Terrell. I also dedicate my story to my donor, Tommy Simmons, and my donor family, who gave me the gift of life.

I have many friends on the social network waiting for a liver as well as those who have received a second chance in life. Several of my dear friends unfortunately did not receive a liver in time and lost their battle. I dedicate my book in remembrance of those who lost their battle waiting for a transplant. We have become an extended family, and so it’s painful when people I became great friends with lose their battle to this horrible disease.

Without the love and support of my family, I would have never made it this far fighting my battle. This is going to be a long journey for us all. In March 2016, I was informed that my cirrhosis had become decompensated cirrhosis. The life expectancy is somewhat grim, and without a liver transplant, I will die. I am writing my book to help others who are battling cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, and hepatic encephalopathy. Waiting on a lifesaving transplant is like waiting to win the lottery. Some will receive a transplant, and unfortunately, some will die before receiving their second chance at life due to the shortage of organ donors. Donate life!

WHAT IS CIRRHOSIS OF

THE LIVER AND HEPATIC

ENCEPHALOPATHY

Liver Disease Sucks!

During 2011, I was in and out of several emergency rooms and hospitals, having abdominal pain and swelling, and not any of the doctors could diagnose my illness. Sometimes emergency room doctors are not as thorough because they are mainly interns seeing you and passing the information to the doctor on call. I kept feeling bad with no energy, sleepy, and tired all the time, and nobody could tell me why. I went to my primary care doctor in June 2012 because my energy level was very low and I had a lot of edema in my legs. She took labs and stated she will call me with the results.

I received a call a few days later to come to the doctor’s office for my results. She stated my iron levels were three times higher than normal and my liver enzymes were four times higher. She wanted me to return in a week to have the labs repeated, and the results were nearly the same. I had an appointment with a gastroenterologist later that week. In the beginning, I had test after tests and was repeating labs each week. Each time I went, I had more tests checking the liver enzyme levels and iron levels, and this continued for approximately three months. The tests were continued for two years, and my numbers remained high. I was advised a liver biopsy would need to be done in the future. I stopped going for tests and decided to research my labs to see if I could find anything out of the ordinary. I was always sick and couldn’t function, and I could not find what was wrong with me. I began being my own advocate, and I had to know why the hell I was feeling like I did.

I continued getting sicker and visiting many emergency rooms over a year due to pitting edema, congestive heart failure, and abdominal pain and could find anything. I know I was in the emergency room at least twice a month for over a year. I began having chest pains and breathing issues due to fluid, so I began seeing a cardiologist. I had appointments after appointments with cardiologists and had two heart catheterizations in two years due to chest pains. Each time, the results revealed there were no blockages in the main arteries but found several in my smaller arteries. I was started on heart medications, blood pressure medication, and Lasix for fluid retention.

I continued feeling very bad all the time and was determined to find out what was wrong. I began researching my blood work and charting it to see if there were any indicators of something going wrong. After checking the highs and lows on my lab work for two years, I noticed my platelet count has been dropping for over a year, and not any of my doctors had noticed. I mentioned it to an emergency room doctor, and he stated there was nothing to worry about. Low platelets should have thrown a red flag and started investigation on why the labs showed them in the eighties. I began to panic because my grandfather passed away with leukemia at a young age of fifty-four, and low platelets are a sign of cancer and other diseases. My mother passed away April 5, 2013, with a very rare type of cancer called endocrine cancer and survived less than two months. I began to get worried it might be cancer. I became worried and panicked because it appeared no one cared and no one listened. Each one of us knows our bodies and knows when something is wrong. If someone had listened or if the gastroenterologist had done his job, I would have not been dying and waiting on a lifesaving organ transplant. I made an appointment with my primary physician and explained to her what I had found in researching my lab work. My primary physician began researching her lab reports while I was in the office and stated she was worried it may be cancer after showing her my platelets were dropping in my lab reports. She immediately called and made an appointment at the cancer clinic with a hematologist in August 2014. My primary doctor stated she was going to be surprised at what they might find.

I had a couple of visits with the hematologist, and each time, lab work was repeated ’cause my platelets were continuing to drop. My lab results came back, and the hematologist stated my platelets were remaining low, and she scheduled me for a CT scan of my abdomen. The results of the CT scan showed I had an enlarged spleen and liver. The hematologist stated he would like to hold off on a bone marrow biopsy and stated he wanted to send me to a gastroenterologist because he was thinking I may have cirrhosis of the liver and not cancer.

The hematologist made me an appointment with a gastroenterologist on October 28, 2014. The gastroenterologist stated he would like to schedule a colonoscopy and endoscopy on November 3, 2014, at his office. My kids and grandson were there with me for the procedure. During the procedure, I had one polyp, which was benign, removed from my colon, and the endoscopy revealed I had erosive gastritis and grade A esophageal varices. The gastro doctor stated varices are normally seen in patients with cirrhosis of the liver, and he scheduled me for a CT scan liver biopsy at the hospital.

On November 4, 2014, my family was with me while I was admitted for my liver biopsy. When I arrived, the nurse came into my room and took my vitals and labs were drawn. I had to strip naked and wear a hospital gown for the biopsy. It seemed it would never get started. I guess the anticipation of getting it done had me stressed out because I watched a liver biopsy on the web and it frightened the hell out of me. I was very nervous but tried my best not to show it to my family during the wait. The radiologist’s assistant came to my room and escorted me to the CT lab and had everything ready for my liver biopsy. Once I was in the CT lab, the radiologist introduced himself and began explaining what was going to take place. I was placed on the CT table, and the machine guided my body for the scan.

Once the scan was completed, the technician marked the place for the incision on my abdomen with a marker for the biopsy. I would highly recommend everyone not to watch a procedure on YouTube because it looks painful as hell and will have you nervous. The radiologist began pulling out his scalpel to make the incision and began showing me what it looked like and explained how far he would cut. He began pulling out needles that appeared to be six to ten inches long and stated he will be giving me shots to numb the area. The first needle was probably the most painful part of the biopsy. Once the area was numbed, he made an incision and showed me the rod he would be inserting to get the biopsy. It appeared to be the size of an ink pen. The radiologist stated I would hear a click and once I heard the click, he would be finished. He then made the rod click so I would know what it sounded like. I began getting very nervous, and I closed my eyes, anticipating the pain. I only felt a small amount of pressure when he inserted the rod, and