Who Is Big Bid?

It occurred to me that when I started this blog, it was to keep our family & friends updated on Big Bird's health and progress etc. It is hard to call everyone with all the info. But as time has gone on, it has occurred to me that our family & friends are not the only ones reading and stumbling upon this blog. So, I thought I would let you know a little bit about who Big Bird is.

Big Bird is my wittle brother. I say this as he is my younger brother, but he is actually 6'10" tall. He is also currently sporting a lovely tinge of yellow in his skin & eyes (mostly eyes right now-he is looking ok skin wise currently). Hence the name Big Bird (tall and yellow).

Big Bird has been sick since he was about 15 years old. He broke his leg, and things just spiraled from there. He starting "passing" blood, come to find out he had bleeding ulcers in his colon. He had to have a couple blood transfusions-he is actually surprised to have survived as his blood counts would be extremely low.

When he moved to Austin, and ended up in the ER with a colitis attack, we found his excellent Doctor. He was able to finally after about 5 years of dealing with the colitis, get it under control. Dr. Ziebert continued to keep Big Bird under his wings. In 1999, his liver function tests starting coming back abnormal. They did an ERCP and discovered that Big Bird had PSC. We were told that he would need a liver transplant in about 5 years. As time went on, he would get occasional episodes of UC, and occasional episodes of liver related infections.

In 2005 they did an ERCP and stated that stenting would no longer work that transplant was now an option that had to be considered. Well at this time, Big Bird had to insurance. Since his health was declining, energy fading, labs getting worse, itching becoming unbearable, with consultation from his doc we decided it was time to apply for SSDI. SSDI was granted, but the kicker with that is Medicare takes 2 years to kick in before you are eligible. He got a couple cholangitis attacks, symptom's got worse and we really started to fear.

On February 1, 2007 Big Bird got Medicare. On February 9, we were meeting with the Transplant Clinic. In April 2007 Big Bird was being evaluated for Transplant. In May 2007 Big Bird was listed.

Now we just wait. Big Bird is #1 for his Blood Type (type A) he has been this way for a couple months now. His labs will be redone next week when he has a transplant clinic appointment.

The last couple weeks have been really good actually. But as anyone who knows how PSC works, you NEVER know how long that will last. So you take each day at a time.

Well, that should give everyone who doesn't know Big Bird some background and even a little bit of explanation to his nick name.