The Derek Janiak Hepatobiliary Forum
The liver is the largest internal organ in humans and the only one that will grow back if part of it is removed. It is responsible for over 500 different functions in collaboration with other organs. Pfft. Overachiever.
I spent the weekend in Washington D.C. at the inaugural Advanced Advocacy Academy (A3) presented by the Global Liver Institute (GLI). I cannot stress enough how much D.C. and its denizens love abbreviations and acronyms. While much of my time was spent stuffing my brain with information about liver health and how to advocate for …
The following .gif is comprised of many of the images I received when I requested my medical files from the pre-transplant tests and my post-transplant hospital stay. These images are of my abdominal region during my pre-transplant MRCP, or magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography on April 7th. The procedure requires injection of a dye into the vein, and then the MRI picks …
Yesterday morning I had my one month check-up with my surgeon. This involved blood work, an ultrasound and a meeting with my surgeon and the live donor coordinator. The blood work was the typical jamming of a needle in my arm and removing a few vials worth of blood. The ultrasound was pretty comprehensive. The technician took …
Apparently when you write a comprehensive post about mean waiting times for patients with a virtual MELD score of 40, you get to have a new liver. At 5:00 am Derek was wheeled into surgery by his surgeon, 12 hours after we were given an inkling that a viable liver was in play. We were …
Before I launch into this epic post, I want to remind everyone about a post I wrote back in December called "The Ring Theory of Comfort." If you're not sure what to say when you speak to either of us, just remember the mantra: Comfort In. Reading it again was a good reminder to me that Derek …
The Derek Janiak Hepatobiliary Forum 