Blog

My name is Danielle and I am a 26 year old biliary atresia survivor from Staten Island, NY.

During surgery my doctor discovered I had cirrhosis of the liver. I had PSC (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis). This is when bile ducts in the liver are clogged or closing.

After ten days in the hospital and an ERCP (a scope of the bile ducts), they diagnosed me with PSC. The ERCP showed that my bile ducts were narrowed and the bile was being blocked.

I was diagnosed with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). It was a huge shock to me since I never had any major health issues.

All this time I was yellow, getting weaker, struggling to walk, unable to climb stairs, sleeping 12-14 hours a day, in pain, only eating soup or porridge yet my weight was increasing.

Christy found out she had cirrhosis on her mom’s birthday when she started to feel ill. She and her husband went to the hospital where he thought he was going to lose her in front of his eyes.

After several months in and out of the hospital, numerous tests and a biopsy, Christian was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis before his first birthday.

Charlie received an upper endoscopy and banding procedure to cut off blood flow from esophageal varices that had developed due to his portal hypertension.

Life with PBC can be a lonely journey. It’s common for people to feel isolated, frightened and overwhelmed after they’ve been diagnosed with the disease and when they experience new symptoms or setbacks.

In October 2012, she visited the Mayo Clinic, where she was finally diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C, a potentially life-threatening disease.

Life does not give you another chance too often. With organ and tissue donation, you can be giving that gift. Shelby thinks all the time of her gifts that she has in her life.

James McGuffey is climbing mountains both literally and figuratively. But what inspires him to do the first has all to do with the second: his wife Carleen who is living with hepatitis C.