There are so many emotions running through me right now, I just don’t know where to start.

First off, I’ll start by saying that my mom had her operation today, which was successful, and is now officially beginning her long road to recovery. The hardest part of this entire process is in our rear-view mirror right now. :’)

We were told last Wednesday (Nov 23) by doctors that there was an anonymous donor who had gone through most of the testing and the operation would be penciled in for Monday (Nov 28). In the past as I mentioned in my previous post, we were told three times over the phone that someone was almost certain to be a match, only to have our happiness crushed by the results of further tests that deemed them to be incompatible with my mother. This was the first time we were told personally by doctors, and the first time we were given an operation date of any kind. (Before we were told operations were usually scheduled two weeks after a donor was found, however, due to my mom’s condition they bumped it up to within a few days). This was AMAZING news for my family, yet we all remained cautiously excited due to the fact that we had been through a similar rush of emotions before only to have them crushed. For this reason, I did not update anyone on the internet, and treat the news as if we were in the clear and everything was good. I wanted people to keep spreading the word should the small chance that the operation got delayed or even cancelled, which was a possibility, occurred. The donor could have been cut open on operation day by the surgeons; the surgeons may not have liked what they saw with the liver, and they may have cancelled the operation. The chances of that happening were low, but still a possibility.

My mom as I’m writing this is heavily sedated in the Intensive Care Unit for post-operation recovery. She will be in there for a few days so they can monitor her to make sure there are no complications with her body accepting the new liver. All day all the updates we have received from surgeons or nurses have been excellent, saying everything is going according to plan and that my mother’s body is tolerating everything that they are doing to her body. They have IVs all over her body, as well as a breathing tube which will be removed sometime tomorrow as she recovers, but I couldn’t be happier that we as a family have FINALLY reached this stage, the stage where my family can begin to help my mom through this long road of recovery. (We were told 3-6 months before she is back to living a normal life) After all my mom has been through, all the pain, all the suffering, all the hospital visits, and what we as a family have been through seeing this amazing person that we love so deeply in that kind of undeserving pain, it’s just… it’s so surreal, and I can’t possibly begin to describe the feelings in words. To say this is extremely relieving doesn’t do justice to the significance of the event. It’s so overwhelming, and I couldn’t be happier that hopefully sometime very soon, my mom will have her normal, happy life back again. :’)

As for who the donor is, the donor throughout all this has chosen to remain anonymous. We just know as a family that it isn’t anyone we know, as everyone we know has told us they haven’t received a call to be tested yet. So as a family we have come to a conclusion that one of you guys, someone anonymous who does not know us personally, a viewer of this website, is the donor. Finding a liver donor is EXTREMELY difficult, that is something I have found out the hard way throughout this whole ordeal. If you don’t have someone personally request to donate to someone you know, you could wait for up to 2 years for a donor, especially if you have a rare blood type like my mom. Understandably so, this is an organ donation. It’s not like we were asking someone to donate blood, a procedure that takes less than 10 minutes and live the rest of day as if nothing happened. We were asking for someone to give them a piece of themselves, to give my mom her life back, to have themselves cut open, bare stitches for life, and go through a recovery time that could last up to 8 weeks… that’s HUGE. So the fact that this donor is someone we don’t even know, a complete stranger who has given my family the greatest gift of all is just… how do you describe an action like that? Unselfish, caring, thoughtful… these words are such an understatement, you can’t possibly justify in words how amazing an act like this is. This anonymous donor is truly an angel. We have our mom back, because of someone we’ve never met, someone who of as of right now, doesn’t even want to be known. It’s incredible.

My family deeply, deeply wants to thank the donor personally, but we have no idea who it is so we can’t. They have just gave us our mom back, the glue that holds our family together, someone who has done everything for us. It’s sad that at the moment, we are unable to thank this extremely generous human being. It really gives you faith for humanity knowing that in a world where bad always seems to be happening in one way or another, there are amazing people out there who are capable of doing good you could never imagine.

So whoever you are, wherever you live… this message can’t possibly be enough to express how truly thankful and appreciative we are of what you’ve done for us. I could write until my fingers fell off, and I still wouldn’t be thanking you enough. If we could ever have the chance to thank you in person, my family would greatly appreciate that and respect all your wishes, whatever it may be, whether it’s not receiving anything in return or not telling your story to others. But if we could just get the opportunity to thank you in person, to hug you, and tell you how much you’ve effected and helped our family…we would absolutely love that opportunity. If you wish to remain anonymous, we will certainly respect your wishes. However, we want you to know that you are an angel. You’ve literally given us the greatest gift we will ever receive, and there’s just no possible way we can thank you enough. How could we? Thank you. <3

As for everyone else, I can’t thank you enough for spreading the word, for offering to donate, for getting blood tested, offering words of encouragement, whatever you did that helped comfort our family in knowing that there were many people concerned and wanting to help. Not just from people I know personally, the majority of responses were actually from people I’ve never met before, which was absolutely overwhelming, considering what I was asking for and the fact that they did not even know me. To me it’s incredible that someone cared so much about a situation that someone else they had not met before was in. It was overwhelming. To the people I know, and don’t know, all the creative things you’ve done through all this to help spread awareness, whether it was making green ribbons, business cards, tumblr posts, profile pictures with green ribbons, absolutely anything. Even all the reblogs, retweeting, forwarding, etc. There are just so many people to thank, with so much thanks to give. Also to some celebrities who made my story reach A LOT of people by retweeting my story. J.P. Arencibia, Patrick Stump, LIGHTS just to name a few. You guys assisting to spread the word, saved my mom.  This anonymous donor, may have read my post directly, or through a retweet, or a reblog of my post and seen that. That person ended up saving my mom’s life. I have my mom back.

It may be hard to understand that if you haven’t been in this situation, but after seeing my mom go through what she’s been through, fighting hard through all the pain and sleepless nights, and in the back of your mind wondering what is going to happen to her, to be able to say ‘I have my mom back’… wow. :’)

I also want to thank Toronto General Hospital and their staff for everything. I have been here many times with my mom over the past few months, in the past three weeks I have practically lived here, sleeping overnights in waiting rooms and what not. The staff here, whether it was the surgeons, doctors, nurses, or even housekeeping, everyone was always extremely caring and happy, and made our family feel like there was no better place in the world for my mom to be treated at in the world then at this hospital. The staff was extremely kind, extremely hard working, and extremely caring and understanding of all situations. I have been here, like I said, for the past three weeks, along with one trip last month, and not once have I been displeased with any member of the Toronto General Staff even in the slightest. They are amazing people who run a world class hospital here. There work will forever be appreciated by our family.

Thank you all! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I will do my very best over the next few days (may even take weeks or months with the amount of responses I got) to thank you all individually. I’ll go through tweets, e-mails, messages, posts, and thank everyone individually for all you’ve done. Throughout all this I saw a lot of things being done by many people that definitely did not go unnoticed by me. Regardless of what you did, even if you did the smallest of things, I want to reach out to you and thank you individually. I just hope I do not miss anyone when I go through all the thank you’s. :’)

She’ll be able to watch me graduate, she’ll be able to travel the world, she’ll be able to enjoy her life again to its fullest, I’ll have a mother to walk me down the aisle when I get married someday, she’ll be able to enjoy time with the people she loves and the people who love her again… when my mom fully recovers from this, the sky will be the limit for her. All thanks to you. Thank you.

Miracles do happen.

Love,

Michael Andrade

Considering what I am asking for, and where I am posting this, I do realize that this may be a long shot, but I must try everything I can.

My mother’s liver is very weak. She has had a liver disease for about a decade now. With frequent checkups to the doctor and medication, she looked and felt as if she didn’t have a liver disease at all, however now my mother is noticeably getting weaker, and her liver continues to get weaker by by the day. 

Over the past couple months her skin and eyes have noticeably turned yellow which is a sign of a very weak liver, she’s retained an excess of water in her stomach which has made it very difficult for her to sleep, she’s been tapped so many times for blood tests she’s starting to form bruises on her arms, she’s had a few nose bleeds that have lasted up to 3 hours, and has had body pains that are simply unbearable for her, just now as I’m reposting this she was mumbling to herself “Why me? Why me? I’ve never been a bad person.” It’s so heartbreaking to hear your mom say that. I’ve been to emergency every one of those times with her, sometimes even spending the night and getting no sleep just to be with her. It just absolutely kills me to see my mother have to endure this kind of pain. It breaks my heart. It cuts right through me like a knife. 

That woman in the picture above has loved me like no other mother can. She’s the strongest, most unselfish person I know, and has made so many sacrifices so that her 4 children can live a great, great life. I just can’t even begin to describe what she has done for her family, and she will never take any credit or reward for it. This is why I am resorting to every possible way I can, including Tumblr, to get my message across.

The only way my mother will be cured, the only way she will get her life back, the only way my family will stop this emotional roller coaster we’ve been on, is to find a liver donor.

Right now, there are a two people in my family who have the same blood type as my mom on the list to be tested for compatibility. However, my mom’s blood type is rare, O-, which makes it that much more hard to find a liver donor. In addition to that, one person may be the same blood type, but there are still other hurdles they have to jump before they are a go to donate to my mother. Already we have had 3 people who were said to be a match by the doctors, but further testing found issues such as the size of the liver, enzyme levels, and potential transferable illnesses that prevented them from being donors. It’s been an emotional roller coaster, and it’s made it clear to me that being able to find a donor is going to be extremely difficult, regardless of how big my family is. 

I got tested, and was truly, truly hoping I would be a match so I could donate in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I’m not suitable to be a donor as I have a different blood type than my mother, so I am really left with no choice but to depend on the generosity of others to donate a piece of their liver and save my mother. 

As I mentioned before, there are people in my family who are currently on the list of potential donors. Many family members have had their blood tested, but do not have the same blood type so they can’t be considered to be put on the list. The hospital has a policy of testing one person on the list at a time, this test is to see if issues such as the size of the liver and enzyme levels exist. As I also mentioned, we’ve had 3 potential donors that were told they were a match already end up not being a match after further testing, so because of this, I want to take every precautionary measure I can and continue to build the list of potential donors for my mother in hopes of finding someone who is 100% compatible and able to donate to save her life as soon as possible.

I’m just really worried, and I don’t want to lose my mother, especially without me trying everything I can do to save her. She’s done so much for me, the least I can do is spread the word and try to find a donor for her.  Unfortunately, my family and I are not allowed to offer a reward or incentive to donate, as it is against the law here to do so, so all we can do is spread the word and hope that people donate out of the goodness of their hearts. 

Which is why I am asking that if you, someone you know, or just absolutely anyone would be willing to donate a piece of your liver to my mother, I honestly cannot put into words how much that would mean to my mother, to my family, and everyone who loves & knows her. Donating a piece of your liver is a serious process, I’m not going to sugarcoat that. However, the operation would be easier for the person donating than it would be for my mother. Whoever ends up being the donor will be expected to make a full recovery after a week, then would have to miss 3-7 weeks afterwards from school/work just for precaution. Your liver would grow back to 100% over time, while my mother’s would grow to 90%, which is a vast improvement from what it is now. I really do not want to force anyone into offering to donate, the fact that you’ve read this message up to this point so far means more to me than you think it does. I’ve tried to spread the message on various social media websites already, not expecting anyone to response, but the response was overwhelming, I was literally tearing up at each one I got whether people were willing to donate, or just being concerned for my mother and keeping her in their prayers. It just means so much. I DO NOT want to force anyone to do this at all, please only do this if you truly want to. If you don’t want to, that is absolutely fine, like I said, the fact that you’re even reading this, on Tumblr, and you most likely do not know me that well, means the world to me. It would truly mean a lot if you just spread the word in any way possible.

If you would like to help out, here are the steps you can go through:

1. Find out your blood type. If you go to your family doctor, or any walk-in clinic, they should be able to do a blood test for you. They will ask why you want one, after that, they should give you a requisition and tell you where to go from there to get it done. Blood tests are free.
2. e-Mail me (If compatible). If your blood type is O+, O-, or A and you are willing to put your name on the list, e-mail me at mike2025@hotmail.com and I will e-mail you back an information package that explains the entire procedure, the operation, the benefits, the risks etc; along with a questionnaire/form that has to be filled out in order to be put on the list at Toronto General for my mother. If your blood type is A however, you would have to go to Toronto General to take another blood test to check the subgroup of your blood. e-Mail me if you have blood type A and are willing to donate, I will fully explain everything to you as I went through the same process.
3. You’re put on the list, and potentially go for testing at Toronto General. After the forms are filled out, and submitted to Toronto General Hospital, you will be put on the list of potential donors for my mother. If the potential donors prior to you are not compatible and you’re next on the list, you will be called by the hospital to have a CT Scan and MRI to be done at Toronto General. The doctors will call you back about a week after to let you know if you are compatible to donate or not. So far my family has not had much luck with this step, which is why the bigger the potential donor list, the better chance we have of surpassing it.

A few requirements prior to the steps above are:

• You must be 16 years of age or older, and under 61 years of age to donate. In Canada where the procedure will be done, you cannot donate if you are under the age of 16.
• If put on the list and called upon, you would have to go to Toronto General Hospital to get the CT scan and MRI done. For this reason, you must live around the GTA, or be able to travel to Toronto. I understand that most of you may not live around Toronto, if you don’t and still want to donate, please do not worry. Just the very thought that you do want to donate, and can’t due to location, means so much. If you can spread the word in any way possible to friends and family, that would be very, very much appreciated.

If you are just curious about the procedure, and want to learn more about it to make it easier for you to decide if you want to donate, e-mail me at mike2025@hotmail.com and I will send you the information package I mentioned above that explains everything about the operation, the benefits and risks associated with it, etc. 

I can’t thank you enough for reading. The responses I have received so far, like I mentioned, are so overwhelming whether people are willing to donate or not. Just the concern for the health of my mother means so much to me, and really comforts me in almost feeling like I’m not alone in this. Please spread the word at the very least to people you know, reblog, retweet, word of mouth, status update, profile pictures, whatever. Even if you spread the word to just ONE person, that person can be the one who saves my mom. Thank you. God Bless.