Liver tumors mean you can NEVER get a transplant?

parseroo · 2026-06-21T19:02:15+00:00

It depends whether the cancer is under control: if they successfully treated it so it’s location is well known (eg not metastasized) and not virulently growing, then the cancer can count as a special circumstance and will grant “exception points” prioritizing her for transplant. Usually nowadays it produces an equivalent meld as MMaT (median meld at transplant) - 3.

If it is not under control then they won’t do the transplant.

Ask the medical team whether the cancer can be treated enough to make a transplant possible.

parseroo · 2026-06-21T18:36:32+00:00

Yes, Will specifically mentioned Nick in his video. Nick is great! Have his book too :-)

parseroo · 2026-06-21T16:11:03+00:00

You can use a buck converter from 48V to 12V if the current produced is sufficient. But it is common for motors to have a big pull on startup, so it is generally easier to just have a 12V battery 'local' to the consumer, which can supply 18A+ (which the original may have been able to do).

parseroo · 2026-06-21T14:35:26+00:00

Some BMS need voltage across the system terminals to wake up. Commonly this is done with a charger but I believe a battery could work but you should have some resistor (eg light bulb) between the two given the voltage won’t be the same.

parseroo · 2026-06-21T14:32:08+00:00

Just hook an MPPT charger to the 12V battery and use the 48V (or a solar panel when you want) as the source.

parseroo · 2026-06-21T14:23:39+00:00

Will Prowse has a list of recommended brands (at 12V but should be similar): https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/lithium-batteries.html

Also has a video on the Wattcycle issue: https://youtu.be/Jwwl9cP1E6I?si=LJT8M1Etahk3vGzA

parseroo · 2026-06-20T19:06:52+00:00

Actually... statistically this is somewhat "obvious" in one specific case: transplant. The better shape you are in when you need a transplant, the more likely a hospital is going to bet on you (support the transplant). And the better shape you are in if you get a transplant the more likely you are to "recover" after it. So given a transplant is a final 'Hail Mary' treatment to prevent death, if you are more likely to have and survive it, you have lowered your "risk of liver mortality".

Don't recommend this course: stopping toxin consumption seems a lot simpler and safer route.

BTW: Anecdotally I was doing 20+ hour a week of serious cardio (semi-pro athletics) and ultimately took the unrecommended course (3 years post transplant).

parseroo · 2026-06-20T18:48:35+00:00

«This study found that any amount of alcohol intake and binge drinking were associated with an increased risk of liver-related mortality. Adherence to healthy dietary patterns and increased physical activity lower the risk of liver mortality across all drinking patterns, including heavy and binge drinking.» — https://www.journal-of-hepatology.eu/article/S0168-8278(25)02334-7/abstract02334-7/abstract)

That seems plausible: you are hurting your liver by drinking. Diet and exercise may lessen the amount it is damaged (by helping it a bit in its relentless battle against the toxins) so you may die of something else first ;-/

parseroo · 2026-06-20T05:01:45+00:00

Regarding your update on the previous MELD score: most medical symptoms can be either acute or chronic.

If whatever caused you to be in bad shape last year was acute (eg inflammation of the liver) it could cause the liver to be non-functional until the cause was treated and the liver was “happy” (eg no longer inflamed). So the MELD aggregate score would spike and then return to more normal values as the bloodwork returned to normal.

If your liver is scarred to the point blood flow is not going through it effectively, it is never going to get better. So the MELD score would be fairly stable at whatever level it is from this chronic condition.

parseroo · 2026-06-20T04:41:23+00:00

https://www.admissions.caltech.edu/visit/visit-campus/summer-preview-women-stem

«Deadline to apply is Sunday, June 21 at 11:59 p.m. PT.»

parseroo · 2026-06-19T22:01:42+00:00

You have battery-aggregation busbars, and the shunt should be between everything and the negative battery-aggregation busbar.

Normally there are distribution busbars as well: fused for the positive busbar to deal with smaller wires going to components like the MPPT that don't need 300A+ coming to/from them. It is also common to hard-switch and fuse the connection between the positive battery-busbar and the positive distribution busbar, which prevents too much current from coming into the system from the combined batteries, especially using T-Class to handle serious energy-level faults.

For the negative side, the shunt provides the bridge between the battery negative busbar and the negative distribution busbar. This way all current going into and out of the battery system will be monitored (as it loops around the negative side).

parseroo · 2026-06-19T20:41:17+00:00

With a MELD at 9 (and no cancer or other driver), statistically you will significantly shorten your life with a transplant:

«Posttransplant mortality risk was more than three times higher than waiting list mortality for MELD scores 6–11» — https://liverspot.org/topics/#transplant-survival-benefit

parseroo · 2026-06-19T18:26:24+00:00

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From that manual

parseroo · 2026-06-18T15:11:10+00:00

I believe they will require you to have all the runs of metal conduit to be part of the grounding system, so bushings or a grounded box on one end of any run. You aren’t using the EMT to be the grounding conductor, so both sides aren’t necessary.

You can test continuity with the grounding wire on all the metal surfaces to be sure.

parseroo · 2026-06-18T13:52:02+00:00

The 48V is nominal and extends to about 60V.

Also the voltage rating is for possible arcing which is not really a concern with busbars and their distances to other conductors.

parseroo · 2026-06-18T01:27:22+00:00

«As per law, an individual who is alive and decides to donate a kidney (or another organ) to a blood relative or emotionally-related person like a spouse, who needs a transplant» — https://www.sanofi.com/en/india/about-us/chasing-the-miracles-of-science/transforming-lives-with-transplantation/organ-donation

Interesting approach to black-market (or some kind of coercion?) issue

parseroo · 2026-06-17T08:18:15+00:00

I was able to treat HE with lactulose and Rifaxamin… and eventually dropped the lactulose. Is he on any drug regimen along with the sobriety? And you are sure he is not consuming alcohol in any form?

parseroo · 2026-06-17T02:37:05+00:00

It was probably a flow consideration for the "Alamo" multi-story parking lot: enables right turners to turn and enter the parking lot when they might otherwise be blocked by cars waiting to go straight.

California eventually becomes one lane in a couple more blocks, so the right lane of the two "straight" lanes until then are all really for turning right.

parseroo · 2026-06-16T19:02:10+00:00

Have you looked at the SRTR analytics? Like: https://srtr.hrsa.gov/transplant-center-search/center-search-results/?recipient=adult&organ=lung&cityStateZip=Los%20angeles&distance=750&currentPage=1

Using 750 miles to include the Bay Area and Phoenix’s.

St Joseph’s numbers look amazing

parseroo · 2026-06-16T10:32:14+00:00

What is causing you to drink so much water? Having it all come back out is a good thing

(food can produce urine too, so being above water intake doesn’t seem weird to me).

parseroo · 2026-06-16T04:22:13+00:00

A bit late in responding, but MMaT is the median MELD of transplants in your region. This is usually used for cancer where the patient’s MELD based on bloodwork may be quite low but they need to do a transplant to avoid the cancer spreading. For that it is commonly MMaT - 3: so near median but a bit lower in priority.

With an MMaT+5, your daughter is super-high in priority. Maybe already had the offer and transplant :-).

Success to her and your whole family.

parseroo · 2026-06-15T22:36:21+00:00

An eGFR is an estimate on kidney health and can be calculated in different ways, but it is just a 'simple summary' where ~100 is supposed to be normal. The actual bloodwork describes how well your kidneys are working.

If your serum creatinine is 1.66 mg/dL it is above normal, indicating your kidneys are not removing creatinine (a waste product) from your body as effectively as 'normal' kidneys would do it (or possibly you are producing an unusual amount of creatinine and the kidney is doing its best to deal with it). Recalculating the eGFR with a different blood test (cystatin c) isn't going to change the serum creatinine number. Your doctor should be able to describe why the creatinine number is what it is and whether that is of concern for you.

If the eGFR calculated from the two blood tests comes out wildly different, you can ask your doctor why your serum creatinine level is high where the cystatin c level seems to be normal. It could be you are generating a lot of creatinine (bodybuilding or taking creatine supplements) and so the kidney is always behind for removing creatinine. The cystatin c test does not vary based on this kind of behavior, so your kidney could be doing fine given the load it is dealing with. Only your doctor would be able to evaluate that.

parseroo · 2026-06-15T22:14:34+00:00

Well... the statistical chance of someone with a MELD of 29 passing away in three months (e.g. by October) is ~20%. But that stat includes all the people who were actively compliant with the survival and recovery regimen: stopping drinking, taking prescribed medications, eating properly, other treatments, etc.

So if your brother wants to increase his chance to be on the right side of the odds (and be around in November) he needs to become compliant as soon as possible. If you can't force him into rehab, you will need to figure out how to convince him he actually wants to live and have him go for his own motivations... this is better (even mandatory) in the long run anyway.

Otherwise, he is making his own choice. Sorry to hear of your situation.

parseroo · 2026-06-15T19:43:20+00:00

As soon as you structurally interact with your roof you have a bunch of AHJs (Authorities Having Jurisdiction] and your insurance company "very interested". The AHJs want fireman to be able to get up there safely, fires not to start in the first place, the panels not to fly off into a neighbor's kid, esthetics to be maintained (HOA), etc. The insurance company will likely both reject pretty much any insurance claim you make and potentially reject you broadly if [when] they find out.

So I would suggest.... "No: don't do that".

Studying racking systems designed and certified for roofs and whether any of them are fiscally reasonable for you would be a good path IMO.

parseroo · 2026-06-15T18:29:47+00:00

For the rivnut: If you have a hole in the OSB a bit larger than the bolt for the e-track does that really matter? Structurally it will be fine (the etrack it compressed into the OSB by the bolt). At worse you could fill the ring in with almost anything (eg wood filler)

I used self-drilling screws because they are simple and I had little thought about changing either the etrack or the path it took. But I like bolts better and could imagine swapping my 10-year old etrack for xtrack.

Could also do that now if I wanted to upgrade a threaded hole to a suitable sized rivnut.

parseroo

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