Alex Ko by Alex Ko Read Free Book Online

even worse than we had imagined. Dad had an old scar on his abdomen, from a previous surgery, and it was right where they needed to make the incision for the transplant. But scar tissue is tough, and it made the entire surgery that much more difficult (and painful, and harder to recover from).
    “He’ll be in the O.R. for at least a few more hours,” the administrator finished. “At least.”
    In the end, Dad was in surgery for eighteen hours. But it was a success. The liver ended up fitting, though just barely. Because of the scar tissue, Dr. Katz had to cut Dad up and restitch and restaple him numerous times. The IV that gave him blood transfusions through the arteries in his neck kept collapsing, and they had to redo it over and over again. By the time they were done, he was like a pincushion—and he’d received nearly six liters of blood. That’s as much as the average adult male has in his entire body. In recovery, he looked almost Frankenstein-ish. We nicknamed him “Liver Bumpy,” because you could literally see where the big new liver protruded from Dad’s otherwise skinny frame.
    To this day, I don’t know where that liver came from. I don’t know the name of the person who gave it to us, or what their life was like, or who they left behind. I don’t even know if it was a man or a woman. But I will be in their debt forever. Thank you, whoever you are. Thank you. You didn’t just give a profound gift to my dad, you gave a gift to our entire family.
    Even once the surgery was over, it was a long time before our family returned to normal. In fact, now that I think about it, we never really did. The next two years would bring one big change after another. My life wouldn’t have any real “normal” or sense of routine until I found myself on Broadway, which is about the most abnormal normal I can imagine.
    But Dad had a long road ahead of him, and I would be alongside him the entire way.

Chapter 6
The Ride
    “A re you sure you’re ready for this?” Mom asked as she watched Matt, John, Dad, and me buckle our helmets on. She couldn’t hide the worry in her voice. “I mean, it just seems awfully soon.”
    “I’m fine, Tammie, I promise,” Dad said as he dropped a water bottle into his backpack. It was a little after nine a.m., the sun was shining brightly in a perfect July sky, and we had an awesome day planned.
    It was a little over a year after Dad’s surgery. His recovery from the transplant had been difficult. For the first week, his condition was so touch and go that he couldn’t leave the intensive care unit. After that, he had another week in a regular recovery room before he could actually come home, and even then, he still wasn’t very strong. His body had been cut open and torn apart. He almost seemed sicker than he had before the transplant, because he was so fragile. The first time he left the house for a walk, my mom had to support him the entire way—and they only went to the stop sign at the end of the block. But week by week he got stronger.
    Immediately after his surgery, a steady stream of relatives came to stay with us and help out. For weeks at a time, my aunties Alicia, Kitty, and Kristin lived in our spare bedroom and did everything from grocery shopping to taking Dad to his doctor’s appointments. And they weren’t the only ones. Our neighbors came by with plates of food and offers to help with yard work and cleaning. Dr. Katz had become a good friend of the family, and he often came by to check on us, as did our neighbors, Joe and Shirley Abdo. Dmitri and Marina Trouch, Michael Kohli, and all the other people we’d met through dance and gymnastics were always eager to lend a hand. Without all of their support, I don’t know what we would have done. My mom was nearly exhausted from the effort of working and keeping our house together, but with the help of friends and extended family, we were able to get back on our feet.
    Weeks turned to months. My aunties went home.