The Red Jumpsuit Alliance

a prayer request for a very near and dear friend of mine..

the image above is a picture of one of my best friends and his mother. they're both desperately in need of prayer right now; i'll let him tell you his story.

I normally deal with my problems myself and don’t seek the help of others, but for this situation I have no choice.

My mom’s liver is very weak. She’s had a liver disease for about a decade now. She has looked and felt fine throughout most of it. With frequent checkups to the doctor, and the right medication, it was as if she didn’t have a disease at all... until recently. My mom is noticeably getting weaker, she has frequently been to emergency for the past couple months, her eyes and skin have become noticeably yellow which is a symptom of a weak liver, her stomach is retaining an excess of water which makes it very hard for her to sleep these past few months usually only getting 2 hours of sleep here and there, she has nose bleeds that last sometimes up to 3 hours etc. I went to emergency with my mom all those times, and have seen her have to endure pain that will most definitely never leave my memory for as long as I live. It absolutely kills me to see someone so undeserving of the pain, have to endure it. The only way to cure her and for her to get her life back is to find a liver donor.

My family is relatively large, so we have many people getting tested to see if they are a match with my mom. My mom’s blood type is rare, O-, which makes it that much more difficult to find someone to be a donor. So far we have had 3 people in our family get the ok that they were a match in terms of blood type, but then issues were found in further testing such as the size of their liver or high enzyme levels made them not compatible. It goes without saying that our family has been on an emotional roller coaster throughout this process.

I got tested, and was REALLY hoping I would be compatible, but unfortunately my blood type does not match up with my mom. At this point, there is nothing I can do but depend on the generosity of others to save my mom. For now there is still a few people lined up to be tested for my mom in my family (the hospital only allows one person to be tested at a time), however, we have already had 3 donors that we thought were ok and they turned out not being compatible as mentioned earlier, so be safe, I’m turning to every way I can to get the message out to extend that line of potential donors incase no one in my family is compatible as a backup plan.

If you, someone you know, or anyone would be willing to donate a piece of your liver to my mom, I can’t even put into words how much that would mean not only to my mom, but to my entire family. I’m not going to sugarcoat this, donating a piece of the liver is not a walk in the park, although it is easier for the person donating then it would be for my mom. Those donating would be expected to make a full recovery within a week of the operation, then have to take time off at school/work for at least 3 weeks after just to be safe. Your liver would grow back to 100% over time, while my mother’s would grow to 90%, which is a vast improvement then what it is at now. I unfortunately can’t offer an reward or an incentive to donate as it is against the law to do so, so I can only pretty much let people know and hope that out of the goodness of their heart they offer to donate. I don’t want to pressure anyone or guilt any of you, the fact that you’re reading this means alot. I honestly don’t expect to find a donor on Facebook, but at this point I have to try anything I can to get the word out. I’m just really worried and I don’t want to lose my mom, not without me trying everything I can to avoid losing her. If you are interested, just simply having your blood tested to see if you’re O+ or O- will mean alot and speed up the process, but most importantly will make sure to see if you can even be considered to donate. If you do end up being the right blood type, and you are next in line to be tested, you’d have to go through about a day of tests at Toronto General Hospital, and you’d find out in a week if you are fully compatible afterwards.

i don't expect anyone on here to donate part of their liver, but i am asking you.. please pray. please direct some form of positive thought toward mike, his mom and his entire family and they go through this really dark period.

thank you so much in advance to anyone who sends prayers/positive thoughts their way ♥