2nd transplant experiences?

October 30, 2001

Greetings everyone,

Brand-new member, approved today. I've been looking for a PSC

group for a long time, and finally found one! There seems to be

quite a shortage of information on PSC, as compared to other tx-

necessitating conditions such as PBC, hep, alcoholic cirrhosis, etc..

My apologies, but I have to introduce myself with a pretty

uncomfortable post; I had to seek out some input on this.

Background: My TX was in 1997, and was not routine. I was the

adult recipient in the 13th (!) split-liver transplant in UCLA

Medical Center's experimental split-liver program. In this

procedure, the small lobe of the cadaveric organ goes to an infant,

and the large lobe to a small {or young} adult--potentially saving

two lives with one donor.

There was immediate and massive rejection. Docs ordered my LFTs

to be re-run because " the numbers don't go that high. " But the

numbers did go that high. The rejection was eventually halted with

OKT-3. (Very nasty stuff: they park the " crash cart " outside your

room when they administer it.) I spent 7 weeks in the hospital--

twice as long as " normal. "

Once I was out, the graft seemed to take well until about a year

ago, when my LFTs started creeping back up and the jaundice

returned. Verdict: chronic rejection. Reason? Unknown. (I'm

grateful that I'm not itching this time; that was far and away the

worst symptom of liver failure.)

The point: Now I'm facing another liver TX. I didn't

particularly enjoy it the first time =), and I don't particularly

want to repeat the experience ... but I remember hearing, somewhere,

that a second TX is actually easier to tolerate than the first one!

Anyone know anything about this? Has anyone here gone through more

than one liver transplant?

Thanks for any replies.

Dave Brown

(M/25/Los Angeles)

Dx PSC 11/1996

Tx 4/20/1997

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