18 year old looking for answers

every since i was born i have had poycystic kidney disease, on december 7, 1999, i had a transplant and am recoverying quite nicely. but now with this disease it can affect your liver also. so eventually i might have to get a liver transplant too. i am lucky to stumble on to this sight b/c i was wondering if anyone could answer these questions.

~how long can you live with out a liver?
~has anyone ever heard of regenerate transplantation?
~Is there a remedy for this itching that you get when you liver enzymes are up?


i think my liver is getting worse b/c every 3 months or so, liver enzymes will be elevated and then they will go back down.
so if anyone has any insight or thoughts about this, thank you in advance for your time.

[Pugie]

First of all congradulations on your tranplant.
Are you sure that the liver complications are from the polycyctic kidney disease and not from the actual tranplant itself? Are you still taking any medications that affect your immune system from the transplant? Those medications can change your lab values.

To my knowledge you cannot live without a liver period. That is one of the organs that if you cannot do a tranplantation is does not hold a good prognosis. I am not knowledgeable about regeneration tranplantations. I do know that the whole theory about regeneration is still being debated by some.
Your elevated liver enzymes do mean that there is something going on with your liver. Even though the elevations are sporadic. They need to determine the cause of the elevation. But it is also not as simple as that. They need to do a whole lab work up with you to see that your body is not rejecting the new kidney. What does your doctor say?

My general feeling is that you may have suffered some liver damage from your previous illness but I'm not so sure that it is related to your transplantation although that should be looked into. Definately f/u with your MD!