a story of joy

First let me tell you that I tried to post a pic of me with my new hair. Ain't really worth looking at and I guess I'll lose it soon anyway.

The story - When Francis was diagnosis with liver failure in 1977 his doctor said "who knows, they may be able to do liver transplants someday". Those transplants became experimental and insurance companies would not pay for them. It was hard for Francis to have insurance with pre-existing rules etc., but he did finally get Blue Cross on his employers benefits.

Then he lost that insurance, but his doctor continued to care for him and to encourage us to hope for successul transplant operations.

He applied for an evaluation at Baylor in Texas in 1988 and had purchased his plane tickets to leave in December. I got a call from the finance office to remind me that in addition to his insurance coverage he would need to bring about $40,000 co-pay. We never saw $40,000 in our lives, so we just went home. Over the next year he continued to deteriorate and he died in the spring of 1989. The day that he died several humong refugees who had gotten into a bad crop of mushrooms receieved liver transplants.

BUT, in 1968 some friends of mine had a little girl. She was the proverbial little girl with a curl who was very good when she was good and very bad when she was bad.
She grew up and got into drugs and the underworld and during that time gave birth to a daughter who was infected with her mother's hepatitis. Last week the daughter was in Stanford University and with just days left to live, (she is only 16), she received a liver transplant. I just love that outcome. Hope you do too.