As Julie, Ricki's daughter, wrote in the introduction, Ricki has had a successful run since his initial transplant. Only in the last year has he deteriorated. His major issues now are slowly progressive liver failure which had led to moderate kidney failure. It has been a long process deciding which factor is causing the other problem. Complicating things is a chronically low blood count which has contributed to his fatigue and lack of energy. For the past several months, he has been extremely limited in what he could physically do and has had little to no appetite. He has lost significant weight. He has spent the past year seeing his multiple physicians and specialists in Austin and San Antonio, trying to find answers. His first transplant was done at the University Medical Center in San Antonio and this initial pre-transplant evaluation was done there. Since his first transplant, Ricki has been to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and has had evaluation and surgical procedures done the
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Introduction
Thanks to the generous and thoughtful donation of Ray Gonzales, Sr., Ricki was given a second chance of life through a liver donation in 2008. This has provided him the opportunity to extend his life by almost 15 years including a trip to Europe with his kids, a motorcycle trip in Spain and hosting several crawfish boils. After Ricki retired in March of 2022, he has unfortunately experienced a year of declining health. After visiting Johns Hopkins in the beginning of March 2023, his expert team of doctors have decided that the next best step and chance towards improved health, would be to list him for a kidney and liver transplant at Johns Hopkins. He is currently staying in Baltimore awaiting the gift from another life-saving donor. We will use this blog to keep all family and friends updated. Feel free to comment and share.
