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Saturday, August 3, 2019

Off Topic Note to Readers on Family Health Situation

My goal here is to try and stay up with current events as much as possible to be able to report anything that might be important related to the theme of this blog. A health issue in my family may make this more difficult so I wanted to alert readers to that, if fewer articles are written in the coming weeks. 


My brother has now entered the more difficult phase of liver disease (non alcoholic related) where more serious symptoms can arise. Ultimately, he will need a liver transplant or some kind of new treatment (stem cell, etc) to resolve the problem. 

In recent weeks, he has been struggling with elevated levels of ammonia in his blood that cause significant mental confusion and disorientation when the levels get too high. This is a very unsettling situation because during these episodes he can lose complete mental cognition to the point where he does not know who even his close relatives are (this recently happened to me during one episode). I am learning that this is a common problem for people with liver disease, and that there is no real solution to the risk of the problem arising other than to take a medication designed to bind to the ammonia and get it out of his system. Everyone reacts differently to the medication such that on some days it works well and on other days it may not work as well. This creates an ongoing situation where at any time he can lose mental clarity and become disoriented. The problem can't be solved permanently unless he gets a liver transplant or some other treatment that can heal his liver (not a likely alternative at this time). This will require somewhat of a joint family effort to monitor him daily, help him go to doctor visits, and perform other activities. 

It's possible some readers may want to know if there is something they can do to help. The answer is yes. There are two possible ways to help which I will try to describe below:

1- Help us let people know there is a website where people can sign up to be a living liver donor here:


We understand it is not likely that most people would be able to do something like this, but there may be some people who have interest in it. If so, and they wanted to look into this for my brother, they can email me at - 

lonestarwhitehouse@gmail.com

and I can explain how to fill out the form on the web site above. The site requires that potential donors be below age 50 and have a BMI of 30 or less to start an application. Of course, no one should feel obligated to do something like this in any way. Our family decided that it would be better to let as many people as possible know about the site, in case someone was interested.


2- This is the area where it is more likely someone might be able to help us out. The potential for this situation to become a severe financial strain is pretty high. Depending on what happens in the next few weeks and months, it's possible my brother may need to try and seek out some financial assistance if some is available anywhere. He may be able to qualify for some level of disability income, but that will not be enough to sustain the situation if his condition lingers for many months.  This is very possible because getting on the transplant list can take a long time. If he were to lose his health insurance during that time, things will get even more difficult and problematic.  Our extended family can help some, but not for a sustained period of time lasting many months or possibly years on the waiting list.

So, the way anyone can help us is to let us know if you are aware of any programs, charities, etc. that might help provide some financial assistance to people in this kind of situation. Our family has never needed anything like that before, so we are somewhat ignorant of what may be available. If anyone does know of anything like that, you can email me at the email address above. We certainly will appreciate any tips or leads.

Final comments:

Please do not view this as any kind of effort to make anyone feel any kind of obligation. The odds of anyone being able to do anything listed above are pretty slim and we fully understand that. We know that many people will kindly think of us with compassion, offer prayers, etc. and that is more than enough help if you are able to do that. Please know that those sentiments are greatly appreciated and are helpful in ways you won't really ever fully know. 

This situation may impede my ability at times to stay tuned to current events as closely as I would like and to provide timely articles. We don't really know for sure what is ahead. But I did want to let readers know about this situation, in case articles appear less frequently in the weeks and months ahead.

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