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What began as a routine check for swelling quickly turned Randy Ramey's life upside down. When pneumonia and swelling were diagnosed as stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver, Randy, of Denton, Texas, struggled to understand how it was all connected.
A series of visits with local specialists revealed a fatty liver disease called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH. For Randy, the diagnosis set off a cascade of life-or-death decisions that led his wife and him to Mayo Clinic, where he underwent a complex series of three lifesaving procedures, including a double coronary artery bypass surgery, liver transplant and, just months later, a kidney transplant. They found themselves navigating one health obstacle after another.
Randy is sharing his story to raise awareness during Donate Life Month.
Watch: 3 lifesaving surgeries and a second chance
Journalists: Broadcast-quality video (1:47) is available for download at the end of this post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.
"I was shocked. I mean, we didn't see that coming at all. It's right out of left field. You know, at that point, I wasn't physically sick. I was just swollen," says Randy.
When pneumonia and swelling became a diagnosis of stage 4 cirrhosis. Randy came to Mayo Clinic for a liver transplant evaluation. What doctors found made his situation far more urgent and far more complex.
"I went into the lab for a chemical stress test, but that's where they confirmed the two blockages. So what they ended up deciding, we're going to do two surgeries in one day. We're going to do your heart surgery — your double bypass — and we're going to do the liver. The worst I felt was the day before I got transplanted. The next morning when I woke up and had to do the walk, I still felt better than I did before the surgery," he says.
From the hospital window, Randy's wife, Elise, watched the mountains outside and saw their journey ahead — every peak, every valley — another procedure, another decision, another climb.
"We're going to have to climb every one of those mountain ranges," Elise says as she recalls their journey. "We're going to have to ascend and descend and ascend and descend every one of those mountain ranges."
"I'm getting rebuilt from the ground up," Randy says. "My kidney took off running, and it hasn't stopped. I don't know how you pay somebody for saving your life. I get emotional because you can't put it in words, but I've tried."
And with smiles as big as Texas, Randy and Elise are home after 27 weeks in Arizona.
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