Will I be able to return after donating my liver?

pumasquirrel,

The liver has two lobes, the right and the left. The left lobe is the smaller of the two. When a person does a live liver donation, only the smaller lobe is transplanted. The donor is left with the larger lobe.

Usually, the donor has to be healthy and have no liver disease, to be able to do a live donation. Thus, there is usually no problem with the donor being able to live a normal life with only the larger lobe. The larger lobe is more than enough to provide the filtering and metabolic requirements for the whole body (as long as it is healthy), which is why the smaller lobe can be donated.

As to whether or not you will be able to return to any specific occupation, that would mostly be up to the employer. However, unless the employer can provide some specific reason why an employee would be a danger to another employee or themselves, they cannot be discriminated against just because of only having one lobe of the liver.

There is really no reason why a person should not be able to do any job with one healthy liver lobe. Many people who have lost one lobe due to trauma have been able to resume playing sports and doing everything they want to do. It is usually recommended that they avoid contact sports or dangerous activities where they may injure their remaining liver lobe.

Hope that helps some. Good luck.