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Patient Stories
Elizabeth Stemporzewski
It was the summer of 1997 and I was eleven. With middle school right around the corner and the summer quickly ending, I was spending the day at my grandparents’ house while my parents were at work. Having a small cold, my mom called to check in on me in the morning; I was fine. When she called back a couple hours later, I was crying in pain. My body was swollen, I had gained ten pounds in water weight, I could not get comfortable and whatever I had was no match for Benadryl. My mom rushed home and eventually we were able to reach Children’s Hospital Boston, after failed attempts with our family physician and local hospital. Children’s wanted to see me the next morning.
In the Emergency room at Children’s, the doctors told my family that I might have died had I not have come to the hospital in the morning. I was admitted to an isolation room and tested for a slew of diseases, all of which came back negative. A full month later, after a liver biopsy, I was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis. Basically my own overactive immune system had attacked my liver to the point of cirrhosis.
Twelve years have passed and I am living with liver disease and doing well. I still go for semi-annual check ups and routine blood work even today, and though my liver disease will never go into remission, I have remained stable for the past several years thanks to what will be a lifetime of medications. While a liver transplant may be in my future, should my condition worsen, and though there are side effects from the drugs and smaller things that spring up from being immune-suppressed, I have learned to appreciate the health that I do have and the incredible medical care and advancements that have keep me stable for the past 12 years. Today I work in the OR at Children’s, the hospital that saved my life.
I was introduced to the American Liver Foundation (ALF) through my GI specialist at Children’s Hospital Boston to participate in their Run for Research program, which matches patients with liver disease to runners who are running the Boston Marathon® for ALF. Six years ago I was matched with Nhu Vu, an amazing and dedicated runner who will be my match again in 2010. (See Nhu’s story under “runners’ stories.”) Through this program, I have helped bring awareness to the cause, raised money for people like myself living with liver disease, met wonderful people and gained a great friend in Nhu. I found an enormous resource and support system through ALF. This year, I will take on the role of “Liver Champion”, along with two other great patient matches, to help bring awareness to other patients of the ALF and all the great things it has to offer.
