This is long, and I’m kinda rambling, but important to me and I’m emotional today, so please bear with me. Like many others who’ve received life saving transplants or treatments/cures for things, I’ve adopted that day (today, September 21 for me) as my “second birthday”, the day I was given a second chance. So today I celebrate my 4th second birthday. Four years ago yesterday, I was still facing the reality that I only had a few weeks left, maybe 5-6 at best. Then a phone call happened where a lady said “we have got a liver for you if you want to accept it, please be at the hospital at midnight for prep, surgery is scheduled for 7am”. Then my life was saved 💚 The liver transplant surgery was just under 8 hours (from cut to close), but I was under anesthesia for almost 24 so I didn’t wake up until the next day. The new liver started fixing things immediately, as the whites of my eyes were no longer yellow/orange within only a day, and my skin was also already returning to normal color instead of yellow, and the horrifically painful swelling in my legs and feet was starting to go away. I woke up to an 18.5” scar directly across my abdomen stapled shut with 58 steel staples, about 8 needles directly into my neck pumping in all kinds of meds, plus strong pain killers controlled by a timed button I could press, a couple of drains coming out of my side needing to be emptied every few hours. I had also stopped bleeding out of almost every hole in my body. Recovery was absolutely brutal and extremely painful especially for the first week before I was discharged, but my nurses were world class and treated me like I was their only patient even though obviously I wasn’t. I always remember the 38 year old who sadly lost their life the day before. Organ donors don’t just save the lives of recipients. Organ donation also has a huge ripple effect that touches into many other people’s lives. For example, my daughter is now flourishing at university on her way to becoming a nurse where one day she may help save other lives. A decision she made as a direct result of what happened to me. My son is now 9 and a super happy life loving kid, and he may not have even remembered much about me from age 5. I always try to honor my donors memory by spreading awareness about the two things I know best: 1) how dangerous alcohol is, and that addicts are human beings too, and it can happen to anyone. Addiction doesn’t care who you are. 2) how critically important not just organ donation is, but also blood donation. Because without a dozens of blood transfusions over a few months because of internal bleeding, I wouldn’t have even made it long enough to get the transplant. There’s a few photos below that I’ve shared previously of the before and after that I think are important. Marked as sensitive because they may be hard to look at. Also I’m going to QT this with a couple videos of nurses talking about what alcohol induced liver disease is like, so please watch those and think carefully before you overdo it with the booze.