The Farm 723

My name is Richard Ryan and I was gifted by my Donor family with a new liver. That was on July 23, 2018. I was not only blessed, but also handed the responsibility for taking care of this liver as though I am now the adoptive parent, and so it is with great love and blessings that I write to you now. To honor such a gift and to pay tribute, I along with several successful men and women of faith, are in the baby stages of creating this foundation. It is our goal to spread the message of the life saving act of organ donation, and the importance of putting the little donor sign on your drivers license. A simple act that can save someone's life.

Now why would one call the foundation a farm? Well having lived on a farm when I was young I learned the value of hard work, the honesty and integrity of the work you preformed, the practice of husbandry, caring nurturing of the animaks in your care. The never ending work that goes with toiling the land, and seeing it return with its bounty that you share with the world. Hard yes, but rewarding. Have you ever been in an airplane and watched the ground beneath you fade off into the clouds? There is a short window in which you can see the patchwork of earth and a thousand little patches that have been the result of someone who is caring for that patch. Well my patch is 723 and for years prior my patch became ran over with thorns and thistles and weeds and some stuff I am not sure what it was, all I know is that the plot had become useless, and I was dying because of it.

Everyone could tell but me, I refused treatment and hospitals that is until my wife found my unresponsive slumped over an ottoman. When she finally got me awake she said I told her just to get me up to which she stomped her foot and called the EMS. Let me interject here, that my wife is more than just a wife, she is cherished and cares for me in a way I have never experienced in my life. So we are rushed to a local hospital where I was put into ICU, and was diagnosed with non-alcoholic cirrhosis. After four days in there I was released and sent home and continued to decline. I did get the chance to be added to the registry by the University of Cincinnati Transplant Unit, one of the top transplant units in the country especially given the number two is Cincinnati Children’s Hospital which is adjoining the UCMC.

I completed the prerequisites as required by law and the medical staff. And in May I was added on the Registry.

My wife and I were shopping for swordfish steaks as she had never tried them and I love them. We collected what I needed to prepare the meal when she got THE CALL. We were sent directly into the pre-op and then surgery. The care I received from the UC Transplant team was exemplary. They explained every procedure, every medication including cause and effect as well as caring for me like a loved one would. My wife and I were constantly amazed how they were able to gauge what I needed, when I needed it, and also what I did not need, like a hose down my throat. My numbers which they make available in real time, are all with the exception of one or two which is due to medications, have been solid. And they are still tweaking me. I am standing tall, able to care for myself within the home and am gaining strength, and a deeper sense of gratitude of debt for the life savinng gift.