Liver Team at Intermountain Medical Center Murray Utah

On November 14th was Lees first appointment with the liver specialist at IMC (Intermountain Medical Center).  Number one I don't like to drive and most of all I don't like to drive in all of the crazy traffic that the Salt Lake valley brings so this trip has already stressed me out.  We had a successful drive to Murray and had already planned the trip out. If you don't know me that well I am a true blue JAZZ fan and any time I can I will go to a game.  Knowing that Lee's condition will only get worse before it gets better I bought us tickets to the game.


The next morning we made our way to IMC for the first appointment.

This is where we met the transplant team.

During Lee's first appoint we met our Medical doctor Dr. Gordon Harmston, while visiting we found out that he grew up not far from Lee in Roosevelt Utah.  During this exam Lee was told that his MELD score was 15. The Model for End-Stage Liver Disease, or MELD, is a scoring system for assessing the severity of chronic liver disease. It was initially developed to predict mortality within three months of surgery in patients who had undergone a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) procedure, and was subsequently found to be useful in determining prognosis and prioritizing for receipt of a liver transplant.  This score is now used by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) for prioritizing allocation of liver transplants.  I found a great link with a MELD score calculator.   https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/resources/allocation-calculators/meld-calculator/
With a MELD score of 15 Lee needed to be worked up for a transplant.  Boy was this scary of course I do not want him to be sick, but if he was going to be sick anyways why not be sick enough to be on the transplant list.   This news had our world spinning not just shock from knowing how sick Lee really was but all the information that was added to the new.  Lee's encepalopathy was officially grade 2 at this time, multiple new medications were started and some were changed.  Mainly a new medications called Xifaxan was ordered this if a fairly new medication that is really expensive.  Luckily we have really good insurance and we were given a discount card ( we had met our deductible at that time too) so it did not hurt us to bad.  (Out of pocket cost is around $3000 a month) Lee was also told that he needed to lose weight and eat a low sodium diet.  This is life changing for him, he likes salt on his salt.  The next appointment was set for December the 14th for new transplant orientation and to meet the entire transplant team.  This was going to be a 2 day appointment up next was planning for the next trip to Murray.