Chopped Liver

Beautiful Spring! Hard work and Nursing School

Kortni — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:32:12 +0000

Good morning! It is finals week for me. I am finishing up my last prerequisite classes for Nursing School. It has been a very fun year with a lot of hard work. So far I have straight A’s and assuming I do well on my finals next week I will have As this semester too. My loved ones know what a miracle this is because my microbiology class is excessively hard and required a lot of work (I haven’t met one person who got an A in it). I am posting because I apply for Nursing School next week and it is very competitive, they say I have a 1 in 4 chance of getting in. Please pray that God opens doors for me and that I am that 1 in 4! I can’t wait until I am a nurse and I can help those who are in pain like I was and like the nurses that helped me! And like my mom and grandma (both nurses)!

As for my health I am doing great. A few weeks ago I had to have a few tests because I was having random liver pain/referred shoulder pain. It went away though. I still deal with migraines and fatigue but I am alive and blessed to be living a full life. I have an amazing family, a sweet boyfriend who is super supportive of my school and good friends. I am looking forward to a great summer with some fun trips with friends and my guy! I have my 6 month appointment in a few weeks with UCSF which I am sure will be easy, maybe they will decrease some of my anti-rejection meds… a girl can only hope.

Thanks in advance for the prayers! I really appreciate it!!

Cold Season

Kortni — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:13:12 +0000

Oh the cold season is here. I could use prayers! I have been sick for 3 weeks with this cold and I’ve had a cough for almost 2 months. My immune-suppressed body can’t seem to shake it. And the stress of some hard classes and this cold weather doesn’t help. 3 weeks is far too long to be sick, please pray that I get better!!

17 Month Update!

Kortni — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 07:38:09 +0000

It is a new year! It has been 17 months since I had two life saving liver transplants. Not only did those transplants save my life, they gave me my joy back! I have been very busy, especially the last 6 months.

I entered a modeling competition that was a few months long and ended with a fashion show. I came in 2nd place. It was a great experience, reminded me that I was beautiful but more importantly I was able to meet some amazing girls that I am now blessed to call my friends and many “little sisters” as well. Since then, I have had a few other modeling jobs. While I don’t plan on doing this for a career, it is just a fun hobby, especially for someone who was bed-ridden and sick for 5 years!

I have also taken my passion for photography and started to do it as a side-job. I have done a few photo-shoots for some local boutiques for their winter clothing lines as well as others jobs. It is so fun! I love photography. After almost dying, photography for me really captures the beauty of here and now. Life is so precious, every second, every smile, I think that is what really draws me to it! You can check our my photography on facebook, “Kortni Gehri Photography”!

I also decided to go back to school for nursing, I started school last August. I have two more pre-requisite classes until I can apply for nursing schools. I worked hard last semester and had over 100% in both of my classes and didn’t have to take my finals because of it. I think it will be so great to give back to people who are sick, like I was for so long. I can’t wait to actually be in nursing school!

As far as my health goes, I have been doing very well. My labs are great. They say transplant patients get sick a lot more than others because our immune systems are suppressed but I am happy to say I haven’t had a cold in a year. That is until about 2 days ago when I came down with a cold, which is probably why I finally have the time to write a blog entry! But I’m not complaining, a year without a cold is great! I haven’t been to ER in almost a year either. The only way I know I had a transplant is that I am always scrambling to take my meds on time and I will get the occasional migraine as a side-effect of my medication.

My sister and liver donor, Kelly, is doing great too! I am so blessed to be so healthy and happy.

Here are some of my modeling pictures!

All pictures are by Alexia Wardell Photography and hair and make-up is by Flawless Hair and Make-Up!

Happily Ever After

Kortni — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 05:33:59 +0000

My Story

Five years ago at the age of 21 I went to the Emergency Room for some side pain and internal bleeding. They did their typical lab work and my liver function results were out of range. The next thing I know I am being hospitalized and a nurse comes in and mentions something about my “cirrhosis”. I thought she had the wrong room. Then she realized nobody had told me. Kind of a big oops on her part. She sent the doctor in and he informed me that I had cirrhosis of the liver and would need a liver transplant. At 21!? I don’t drink or do drugs. However, even though this was devastating news, I was ok with it. I knew that God was going to get me through it, no matter what happened.

They tested me for everything under the sun to try to figure out why my liver failed. To this day, they still don’t know. I don’t have hepatitis A, B, C or any other liver disease. They sent my biopsies to 3 major hospitals and still can’t tell me why my liver failed.

I decided to treat my cirrhosis naturally. I had strong convictions and my doctors felt that it was ok, because they didn’t have a treatment either. I spent the next 5 years doing every natural protocol you could think of. At one point, I was almost off of the transplant list as I was getting better on one natural treatment but it was so expensive I had to stop and that is when I got a lot worse. It was in November of 2010 that I really went downhill. I spent a year almost bed-ridden.

From the beginning, they gave us the option of doing a living donor liver transplant and my sister had always said from day one that she would give me part of her liver. Well, after getting sicker and sicker, I was to the point where I couldn’t do anything. I had to use a wheel-chair in stores and had 50 pounds of water retention (ascites). My eyes and skin were as yellow as a sunflower. I was in and out of ER. Finally, I had to make the hardest decision of my life. Suffer for who knows how much longer and chance receiving a transplant (18 people die a day waiting for transplants). So I decided to take my sister up on her offer. After months of testing and doctors appointments, a biopsy and so many trips for my sister to San Francisco, we were ready to proceed. The date was set: August 12, 2011 I would receive the most precious, selfless and amazing gift anyone could ever give. And that anyone was my best friend and sister, Kelly.

The night before surgery was rough, my family and Coleman were scared, Kelly was scared as was her husband. I wasn’t really scared but more upset for Kelly being scared. And of course my parents had BOTH of their daughters going into a MAJOR surgery. I hated that Kelly had to go through this but at the same time was so thankful I would’ve sang it from the roof tops!

The day of surgery Kelly came out of surgery first. As Kelly came out they started to let my family know there were some complications with me. My family heard from the doctors twice during my entire transplant. What was supposed to be at the max an 8 hour surgery turned into a 16 hour surgery. One of the main arteries was not viable and could not be fixed. They took a vein from my leg and when that didn’t work, they called in plastic surgery and they took a vein from my spleen to try to make that work. That artery failed 3 hours after I got out of the transplant. With a failed liver transplant, the doctors gave me just a few weeks to live!

My parents thought that was the end of the story. They honestly thought they had to come see me with no hope, they sobbed for hours that morning before they came to see me. They put me back to sleep with meds when the artery failed, until they could take my breathing tube out because they were scared I was going to have a melt down when they told me that my sister went through surgery for no good reason and that the transplant failed. I didn’t of course, I have always had faith that God would get me through. I knew I was going to be ok. I was just so sad for my sister and I felt she went through surgery for no reason.

Then they let us know that I was going to be placed on the top of the liver transplant list in 5 states! Four long days later, they came to me and told me they had found another liver. It was just my mom and I in the ICU room. My then fiance, Coleman was out getting my favorite chocolate with my his mom (who flew from Georgia to be with us for my transplant). I was hooked up to so many things I could barely move. It was pretty crazy.

That is when my sister also let me know that I shouldn’t be sad, that I was moved to the top of the list and was able to receive a whole sized liver because of what she did. (She donated half of her liver to me which would have required a longer/harder recovery) I wouldn’t have been able to be where I was without her. She had the most positive outlook. I was so blessed. She took it better than I did, just another testament of what an amazing person she is.

It was pretty strange because I had all these feelings about the 2nd transplant. Sadness that my sisters liver failed, I was so sad for her! I was heart-broken for the family who just lost their son in a bicycle accident and that I was to receive his liver. Excitement that I was going to live. Anxiety that I had to have the same 47 staple incision cut open again and have vital organs removed, yet again. That is something nobody should ever have to do, let alone twice in their life! Let alone in 4 days!

The 2nd transplant went well, they were done in a record 4 hours! Quite the difference from the first 16 hour surgery. I love my new “big boy” liver. I call it that because in my MRI scans it is very large! It has been a long and hard recovery. But I am so blessed and everyday I am so thankful for every breath. Every hug I get and every little moment I treasure.

This wasn’t the first time I almost died, perhaps that is why I had so much faith that God would get me through. He has saved me from dying 7 other times (and those weren’t even health related, well ok one of them was)!! My God NEVER lets me down and has blessed me immeasurably.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:28

Now I am ready to move on and live the life that my sister and my donor and of course God has blessed me with! I am back in school working on my nursing degree. I hope to become a transplant nurse. I get to do all the things I love again!

I just want to thank Kelly, though words would NEVER be enough, my donor and his family, again no words can describe my gratefulness. Coleman, who was there every second of every day catering to my every need, my parents who were always there, standing up for me, making the appointments, phone calls and being my advocates, especially my amazing mom. My other sister Kristin and my brother Kevin, that when my transplant failed tried to see if they could donate half of their livers to me…. and everyone who came to see me at the hospital, you will never know how much that meant to me, or if you sent me a card. It really is the little things that count. And of course all of the doctors, nurses and wonderful staff at UCSF. What a WONDERFUL hospital!

I want to encourage you to live your life to the fullest. God has good plans for you, even if you can’t see them right now. He really does work all things together for good and He loves you. Just as He saved my life with a transplant, He saves you everyday from things seen and unseen. He is there in that sunset and that quiet voice at night that says, “You are amazing” You have every right to believe that because you were created in Gods image.

Life is good

Kortni — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 15:21:51 +0000

I’ve been pretty busy! Just wanted to share a picture of me and my awesome liver giver!

Happy Love

Kortni — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:01:44 +0000

Today is my sisters birthday, Kelly. She was almost born on Valentines. She has a heart shaped birthmark on her foot, it’s awesome. Guess we know part of the reason she has such a big heart, she was almost born on love day (2 hours late). Life is good!

Sharps

Kortni — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:21:57 +0000

As I unwrapped my new oh so shiny, sleek, sharp and unwanted accessory, I instantly hated it. As I hate any needle. But being the good Christian girl I tried to stay strong. Have faith. Right?

My mom, a RN, was about to inject me and my mind was racing, I had to make it stop. Then I remembered the alcohol swab, “wait!!” as I ran away from the needle taking my sweet time to return.

I come back and slouch in my chair… I tell my mom NOT to jab me she convincingly said she wouldn’t and then jabbed me! What the ouch! I said no jabbing. I’m one of those weird patients that likes the needle to go in slow, it hurts less for me! Oh well, the show must go on.

She injected it slowly and did a pretty awesome job of pinching my skin so hard I couldn’t feel the injection pain too bad. Did I work myself up over nothing? It’s likely, I blame my fear of needles. It’s been 30 minutes and no side effects so far… Except for the pain at the injection site. Oh the burning. Not like a happy I worked out and maybe lost .3 pounds at the gym type of burn. More like a random bacteria that causes bone marrow to hurt and spit out little fighting cells has just been forced into your body type of burn.

Ok so I am dramatic. I am really ok though. Am I scared? Yeah maybe… The important thing is that at the end of my day I get to take that fear and lay it at the cross and give it to Jesus in exchange for His peace knowing that “He works all things together for the good of His glory”!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention once the injection was done I burst into years. I’m not sure if it was from relief, pain, anger or what but it only lasted about 1 minute. Next time I think I need to exchange my fear for peace BEFORE the injection. Oh and this was the injection for my low white blood count if you were wondering.

Immunity, Immunity, Where Art Thou?!

Kortni — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:53:11 +0000

I walked into the lab again, as I scanned all the familar faces, I saw him! My favorite guy. The one that gets that sneaky, rolly polly vein of mine. Except, this time, I was in for disappointment. It took two tries and a little wiggling to find it. Oh the heartbreak… and the pain. Oh well, I told him I wouldn’t break up with him, he is still my favorite vampire.

This would be the second time in a week that I was in the lab. Last Thursday my labs came back with a very low white blood cell count. An unfortunate side effect of the anti-rejection medications. It should get better with some time. My WBC was 1.4, at the VERY least it should be 3, some hospitals want you hospitalized at 1.5-2. However, UCSF isn’t one of those hospitals. I had to go get retested this week, it came back low again. It was still only 1.5… The doctor told me NOT to leave the house. Can you believe that? I’m on house arrest and I didn’t even get to steal an awesome car! Doctors, I think as little kids wanted to grow up and be cops. House arrest…

Now having a WBC of 1.5 means I get Neupogen injections. They are injections that stimulate your bone marrow to produce more WBC’s. Another trip to the pharmacy. Where I get to pick up needles, my favorite things! Then, per my coordinators directions, I have to find a “roll” (her words not mine!) I told her, “Rolls! I don’t have ANY rolls”. She’s never seen me so she didn’t know if she should take me serious or not. It was one of those funny awkward moments. Of course, I was joking, doesn’t every american have some jelly rolls somewhere or another! God bless the USA…

All joking aside, I am not looking forward to this. I have to take claritin and tylenol to help with the side effects. Likely side effects include a fever of up to 102-103, headache and bone pain and more. Some of the more “serious” side effects include paralysis and spleen rupture but hey… it gets my white count up! I don’t understand medicine, it seems crazy to me to take this. I guess it is quite dangerous though for me to have such a low immunity. Transplant patients can and have died from catching a common cold because they have no immunity to fight it. So, I’m praying my white count comes up fast! I’d like to get on with my life.

I also have a bit of good news, for a few days it was a question if I had CMV, a dangerous virus for transplant patients that can take months to get over. If my results came back positive I could have been hospitalized. I am so thankful God answered our prayers as it came back negative.

Not this past week but the two prior to that I’d been feeling awesome. I was out running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I had so much energy! Then, wam bam thank you mam, I lost it. The last week I’ve been laying around the house looking for that energy. I think it ran away with my white blood cells. If you see either, please tell them to come back, I quite enjoyed being a headless chicken.

The Scale by Amy Tippins

Kortni — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:19:43 +0000

As most of you know, I am a liver transplant patient. Life as a transplant patients has it’s complications due to drugs. Side effects from these awful over priced life savers are cancer, kidney failure, loss of hair, osteoporosis, etc, etc. I could go on and on, but I don’t know how to spell half the names of the complications possible, nor do I have the patience to look them up.

These past 2 weeks, I have had the fun of dealing with the possible risk of multiple complications. I found a lump in my breast which thankfully turned out to be nothing and my doctor thinks there is a small chance I am “pre-diabetic”. Combine that with a case of the shingles (all diagnosed in a 72 hours) and you can tell it has been a stressful few days. What I have failed to share with you is the critical mass of stress was the trauma of “THE SCALE”!

When walking into the doctor’s office nothing makes me want to tear up faster than the idea of “the scale”. Yes, it sits down the hall right next to the bathroom taunting the female patients and bringing a smile to the face of the male patients. The phrase “could you please step up on the scale” strikes the fear of God into any woman over the age of 30 and absolutely makes her want to strip in public just to reduce the number that shows up by a half of a pound. I am a 150% convinced that the doctors have gone into business with the diet companies to reduce women to an emotional wreck who end up spending the next 10 days eating rice cakes and diet shakes. I have not figured out how there is a 15 pound difference between my scale at my house and “The Scale” at the doctor’s office, but it’s there. When I step on the scales at my doctor’s office I expect to see 155, like I do at home. Instead, I see “Hey chubby, you are 170! You better lay off the Reese’s!!!”. I will absolutely admit that I emotionally eat when I am headed to a doctor’s appointment that could have some bad news. It is what I do, but I have never been known to eat 15 pounds of food in one sitting. I am starting to believe that the doctors have a small camera coming out of the front of the scale that does a close up on the face of the patient when the number pops us. These doctors take the video, edit to it, adding their own monologue and show it at their medical conventions during the entertainment hour.

Whether or not my doctor wants to admit it that there is a problem, I will always consider “The Scale” beyond repair until further notice. There is nothing medically positive that can come from the mindset of me acknowledging the 15 difference between my scale and “The Scale”. While evil doctors sit around and laugh at the faces we make, I will stay strong and not succumb to their taunting and sick sense of humor. In the meantime, could you pass the ho-hos?

Written by Amy Tippins

Owner and Founder of Rock Scar Love, a clothing company that embraces the beauty of scars as they are marks of strength, beauty and perseverance! She is also a liver recipient of 18 years and as you can tell, has an awesome sense of humor. I can relate to this post because I recently gained a few pounds! Oh the woes of that one dreaded word. Scale! haha I just had to share. Go check out Amy’s company, her shirts are stylish and have a message. I would love to get one of her shirts I just haven’t got around to it yet!

http://www.rockscarlove.com/the-scale-the-doctors-premise-to-kill-me/

Shirts:

http://www.rockscarlove.com/category/products/scar-themed/

Goodbye Stitches! Hello… scorpion?? Hmm…

Kortni — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:44:19 +0000

My mom, who is a RN, took my stitches out for me Sunday! It kind of hurt, who would’ve guessed. Well, it was still infected so I guess it’s not a huge shocker. Now… as it is healing… my scar looks like a scorpion! Can you believe that. I feel like I was given a tattoo I didn’t want. I hope as it heals it will clear up.

The (not so) funny part is that my bedroom has a scorpion problem. No other room in the house gets the little buggers but my room (which is also 20 degrees colder than the rest of the house). I’ve been stung two separate times and I found one in my bed! Now my scar looks like one (everyone agreed that it does). Funny life joke? I think not!

Now, in the last 5 months, I have 7 new scars! One big transplant incision scar, a JP drainage scar, a central line scar on my neck (yes, a giant IV), a scar on my back from an unknown source that I woke up with after my transplant, 2 scars on my back from biopsies and a biopsy scar on my stomach. I am a ROCK SCAR! It’s ok, they each one tells a story of perseverance. I hope that anyone reading this that has a scar and doesn’t like it is reminded that it is a story of them overcoming something. It is a part of who you are and who you have become. It makes you that much more beautiful.

I have a VERY busy month ahead. Today was my AMAZING mom’s birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!! I spent the day hiking around Big Trees State Park, with my friend KC who is staying at my house for the week! We have been having fun. She just moved here from North Carolina and starts work in Santa Rosa next week. It was so fun to go hiking today, that isn’t something I could have done 5 months ago! Praise God for how far He has brought me. Have a wonderful week!