Why February is Great!

The month of February is great month for many reasons. Well, everyone knows that this is the month of love (Valentines Day), it has the big sales around Presidents Day, the kids in Massachusetts have a week off from school and it’s a month closer to summer.

The personal reasons this month is great is, this month is host to my wedding anniversary and the anniversary of my father-in-law's liver transplant which was able to happen because of my husband. You ask, why because of you husband did the transplant happen? Well, it’s a long, but exciting story. I don't want to overwhelm you with details in this one entry, but I will break the story up so there are pauses in between each "chapter".

So, today I will start our transplant story with a brief explanation. Oh, and my wedding date does tie into the transplant story, but that will come later. My husband, along with the rest of the family, found out in September 2006 that my father-in-law needed a liver transplant. From the moment we found out, my husband said he wanted to donate part of his liver to give his father a chance at a longer and healthier life. You ask, how? Well, for those who don't know, there is a relatively new procedure that surgeons can remove most a person liver, transplant it into the recipient, the donors liver will grow back to what ever the body needs along with the recipients.

My father-in-law has two other children, but his oldest son had just taken a new job and didn't feel comfortable letting them know that they just hired someone who would need to take 3 months off to donate part of his liver, so that left him out. His daughter had no health insurance, so that left her out even thought as soon as the person is approved to donate, the recipients insurance takes over for the cost, but there is all the pre-testing that needs to occur and with no insurance, there was no way she could have afforded it.

So, tomorrow I will start from the beginning of the story to share my husbands and father-in-laws liver transplant story. I thought this month was the best to pay tribute to my husband to show how proud I am of what he did, since the two year anniversary is at the end of the month.