Bob was sick for a year before we knew that he had a liver disease.

We were married in 1991 and on our honeymoon, he suffered from swelling of his legs and feet, he was lethargic and extremely tired and believe me it wasn't because we were having a great time on our honeymoon, he was sick.

Prior to this he was being treated for allergies because the doctor told him that is what was wrong, he was having difficulty breathing, he kept getting rashes on his chest and he developed what appeared to be "liver spots" on his legs.

While we were on our honeymoon I insisted that he see the doctor (we were on a cruise) the doctor pressed on his leg and said, "Sir, you have a liver disease, when you get back to the states please see a Gastric doctor." You can imagine the horror in both of us.

We saw a doctor as soon as we got home and the tests revealed "Toxic Hepatitis" from the antihistamines he had been on for a year prior. A biopsy was performed and they weren't able to get a large enough piece of his liver, so they put him in the hospital and did one laporscopically. By this time, 3 or 4 months had gone by and it was determined (they finally had a name) Hepatitis C along with chirrosis. Interferon was not an option, end stage liver disease was the only option so that he could get a transplant.

In 1995 a tumor showed up on his liver and there it was, end-stage liver disease. His liver was 85% choreic and a transplant was the only answer. After the protocol to be placed on the list which he was approved for, thank God, he opted to have chemo-embolization which had never been done on someone with Hep C, cirrhosis and a tumor. He had this procedure and it almost killed him, funny how the procedure that almost killed, probably saved his life because he went in to failure which pushed his status on the list up to a status 1 and he got his liver one month after the chemo-embolization. There is more to this story, I will tell you now that we were blessed with five more years together.