I empathize with both of you. I was down to weekly paracenteses and monthly esophageal varices bandings, but my kidneys improved so my MELD score dropped to 12. I did not expected to get a transplant, yet here I am, 9 months post. First and foremost I had people all over the country praying for me. There were also several things in my favor. I live 10 minutes from the Phoenix Mayo, and the average MELD score is significantly lower here. Proximity is also a definite plus since the shelf life is so short. Consider multiple listings if your local hospital averages a higher MELD. Also I agreed to accept a liver from a donor with hepatitis C. It really is curable now, vs my liver disease, which was terminal. My donor didn’t have hep C, but did have meningitis. I was on extra IV antibiotics, but other than that it was fine. I wonder if they didn’t call the people above me on the list because they figured if they wouldn’t accept a hep C donor they wouldn’t accept this one. (I didn’t ask - I just counted my blessings). If your muscle mass is low your GFR will be artificially high. Do whatever you can to increase it and/or ask them to estimate it by cystatin. I wish you the best. I know how hard this is.