Just eight weeks after receiving a liver transplant, Chris Klug, a member of the '00-'01 US Snowboard Team is mountain biking, kiteboarding, banging the slalom gates, and simply loving life. Klug filled me in as he tuned his board for the next day's turns at Oregon's Timberline Ski Area...
MountainZone.com:
When did you discover your liver condition?
Klug:
Eight years ago I went in for a routine insurance evaluation when I was considering upgrading my health insurance and they came back with some wacky numbers. They were like, 'You've got some sort of drinking problem or something...'
I said, 'What in the hell are you guys talking about? I hardly even sauce it.'
Then, it took a year and a half to discover what was going on because it's such a rare liver condition. A year and a half later, which was about seven years ago — we finally came to the bottom of it. They said, 'You have a condition called Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) and it will require a transplant. You're perfectly healthy now and asymptomatic, and it could go on like that for a year — it could go on like that for 20 to 30 years...we don't know, this disease has a mind of its own.'
So I just kept chugging along. I competed on the World Cup circuit with this condition and just this last year it got brutal. Like they said, this condition has a mind of its own and decided to turn and go it's own way. I was struggling through this last year...having digestive problems and not eating as well as I'd like to and losing a bit of weight. My liver was just falling apart and there was nothing I could do about it.
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| "It's been really humbling and altogether unbelievable. I don't even know how to put it into words...." |
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MountainZone.com:
How were you getting by before the transplant?
Klug:
They do this roto router treatment where they go in orally and dilate your bile ducts and try and open things up and get your plumbing working properly, but that's just a Band-Aid on the whole deal. The bottom line was that things were just constricting and my bile ducts were shutting down and causing my liver to fail. The end result was I either continue that process — continue the scarring and end up with cancer and have no options, or they put a new pump in and I get to keep going. In 90 percent of the cases, a transplant totally cures the condition and you never have to deal with it again — aside from being pretty methodical about taking your drugs, which I am now. It's a new routine for me that I've got to get used to, but I'm a lucky guy...it's been an unbelievably smooth process.
MountainZone.com:
Every time I've needed medical attention, it's really put things into perspective, regardless of the severity...this one must have really hit you hard, huh?
Klug:
You're not kidding...especially this one. I mean, more so than just wanting to pursue my dreams and have another shot at winning a gold in Salt Lake and getting back to the World Cup...getting to do what I love to do. It was more so a case of hopefully being able to return to a high quality of life and just doing the things that I like to do — and just living for that matter. It was far more serious than coming back and being able to appreciate a snowboard turn, but it's been an amazing process. It's been really humbling and altogether unbelievable. I don't even know how to put it into words. More so than ever, it puts things in perspective. I don't take snowboarding and hanging out with my buddies for granted.
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"I don't know if you'd call my experience kiteboarding...it was more like a swim across the Columbia..." |
MountainZone.com:
What are you concentrating on now?
Klug:
Getting my abs back...they're definitely a bit weaker. I've got asymmetric abs. I also need to get my aerobic conditioning and my leg strength back. I'm doing abs every other day and lifting pretty hard, but primarily it's being adamant about not missing the meds and not being off by a few hours. You've got to be pretty methodical about it and on it all the time. That's the thing, the more you're off with the drugs, the more you mess around, the better chance of having a rejection bout and having problems. I just don't mess around with that.
It doesn't limit me though. It's not like I have to sit at home and wait for noon to take my drugs. I just throw them in the cooler and we go surfing, we go wakeboarding, and if I go dirtbiking I just stick it in my back pocket and make sure I take it. It's not the end of the world, you just have to be keen to taking it every time.
MountainZone.com:
You've been having blood tests once a week?
Klug:
Every Saturday I have my blood tested and check it out — make sure I'm still in one piece and make sure the engine's still running smoothly. I had a perfect blood test last Saturday, which is a good thing. Fortunately for me, I haven't experienced any rejection or infection, really no setbacks whatsoever — I've been pretty careful about not overdoing it though.
MountainZone.com:
You went kiteboarding yesterday...what's up with that?
Klug:
I don't know if you'd call my experience kiteboarding...it was more like a swim across the Columbia (River), but I'm going again today. I've got to pay my dues and get up to speed 'cause what I witnessed the other day was an atrocity. It was fun though — I went out with (Anton) Pogue, my teammate and he was guiding the kite and I was holding his ankles just to get a feel for it. We got one big whip into the power bar zone and he gets launched out of the water and I'm holding onto his ankles and I'm going out of the water...it was insane! But I kind of got the feel for it and we're going to go all day today. I'd love to figure it out...it sure looks fun, but right now I'm a complete rank amateur and I pretty much look like a kook out there.
— Lucas Kane, for MountainZone.com
