Latest procedure on June 4, 2008

I underwent another medical procedure on June 4, 2008 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. One of my doctors checked whether my shunt, which carries blood flow from my intestines to the venae cavae, was blocked by any blood clots. There was some blockage in the shunt, and the doctor used balloon dilation to clear the blockage. The procedure lasted a little over an hour, and I was discharged from the hospital a few hours later. On June 30, 2008, I will have a stint(s) placed in the shunt to make blockage less likely in the future.

The shunt is an artificial tube which was placed in my body in November 2004 to connect the blood vessels from my intestines directly to the venae cavae, the main blood vessel providing blood to my heart. The shunt was intended to be a temporary solution to allow most of the blood flow which normally flows through my liver to bypass my liver and flow directly to the venae cavae. The original plan was to use the shunt in conjunction with blood thinning medication to dissolve the blood clots (that had developed in the blood vessels to my liver) to eventually allow blood to flow through my liver again. The shunt was periodically checked and worked well until December 2005. Since then, the shunt on several occasions had been blocked and needed to be opened again. Upon the advice of my doctor at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, I was evaluated for a multi-organ transplant by one of the nation's top liver transplant surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The liver transplant surgeon recommended that I have the multi-organ transplant, and I moved to Pittsburgh in order to participate in the multi-organ transplant program at the University of Pittsburgh.

I would like everyone back home to know that I am doing well, and that I would really like the opportunity to have the multi-organ transplant soon. I feel like there is nothing wrong with me, and that I can do everything that I did before I left Tennessee. However, I also know that I need the multi-organ transplant and that now is the time to do it, while my health is still well. Thank you for all your concern and prayers, and I hope to see everyone very soon. Take care and remember to become organ donors.