A personal note about this story. Shelley Walker Myers is a heroine, and her journey through life is both cautionary and inspirational. As patient advocates, we deal with thousands of people who face the future in many different ways, but liver disease is hard because it is not managed well by the medical profession or society in a larger sense. Patients often fight battles that in hindsight they should not have had to and we so admire the human spirit that we often see coping with very difficult life journeys.

My story is long and complicated. In 2009 I went in for a gall bladder surgery and woke up to a team of liver doctors telling me in fact nothing was wrong with my gall bladder but I actually had end stage cirrhosis of the liver and was terminally ill! My meld at this time was 28! It started with my first doctor telling me until I lost the weight I had gained, not realizing why I was so sick, I could not meet with a transplant team! Long story short I lost enough to meet with them and the doctor told me in 2012 “Go home and live out the next five years the best you can”!  I was told fatty liver was the cause of my disease.

When I was sent home to die by my first doctor I gave up on myself for awhile and stopped taking all of my meds even the mental health meds I am on for bipolar disorder! I just didn’t want to prolong the inevitable of dying! Well, HE and its fogginess and my bipolar/depression took over my life and all rationality was out the door! I was around the wrong type of people and ended up facing jail. That’s when I woke up and realized my life was still worth fighting for! Looking back now I feel like it was God stepping in and telling me He was not done with me yet!

My first doctor did nothing to truly help me! I had no idea about my disease or the things I needed to know! After talking to another patient, who I didn't even know, who was also going through it I realized I needed to do the research myself!