Posts Tagged ‘liver’

Lazy

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Haven’t posted here since the biopsy. Lazy me. Anyway – after the procedure the huz & I were both contemplating what results might be and we were both thinking in a negative direction. While I mentioned how thrilled I would be to have shown some healing … maybe achieved stage 2 since I had been doing everything possible to eliminate toxins from my body that would use the liver to exit .. .no more hair dye, dropped artificial sweeteners, stopped purchasing items with even a trace of trans-fats, and so on … at the time it was a far reach. Deeper inside I was dreading results. Stage 4 – transplant facility intervention during treatment due to the extreme danger the treatment would pose; the potential for multiple organ failure – not just the liver, or beyond stage four – full blown liver cancer, definite need for transplant and the possibility of not being able to find the right donor… death.

When the doctor called with the results my stomach knotted up. He seemed to stumble over words on the phone and finally said, “this is very unusual – I have past results in front of me and those from your latest procedure. Your liver shows that you have gone from stage 3 to stage 2. Highly irregular, I can’t begin to understand how this has happened.”  Needless to say, I was floored, still am. I’m very happy to know that the condition of this organ has improved and will continue to take supplements as I have been doing. I’m not going to fuck it up — adding fish oil is the only difference at this point and I did that because the oil is being run in clinicals to see if it has the effect of eliminating fat from the liver. The condition of steatohepatitis (fatty liver) is proven to lower chances to achieve remission with standard interferon therapy with ribavirin.  If fish oil can get rid of that fat, I’m taking it!

So now I plan to try and be more active on the Facebook Hep C page and see if I can learn more from others that are fighting this virus. I’ve also set up an additional Twitter account to separate business stuff from health related. I was happily surprised to find that there are multiple groups pertaining to hepatitis C.  If you’d like to follow me http://twitter.com/laurie.traverse

Toothache hit the night before my birthday. Say goodbye to my DelMonico steak, asparagus spears and stuffed mushrooms. There was no way I’d be able to chew that dinner with a bad tooth. Huz went and bought stuffed flounder fillets and made rice pilaf for me instead. It was very, very good … but still wasn’t that big assed, bloody steak I crave. SOON!  I will have that steak. Dental appointment this Thursday and I hope I can convince the dentist to pull the f’n thing.  I’ve been taking antibiotics since March 19th but still have pain with the stupid tooth. Sucks.

Also, I’m sorry that I’ve had to restrict the blog and force readers to register if they intend to reply or whatever. I got so much friggin’ spam before imposing the restrictions. I don’t understand why these people waste their ‘valuable’ time in sending trash over the net.

Guess that’s it for now…

DONE

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Creepy

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Yesterday was an off the wall, plain old creepy friggin day. Creepy doctor, blonde bimbos working the hospital – felt like I was stuck in a bad goddam movie. That’s PJ for ya, I guess.

Today, post biopsy, I’m extremely sore in my right side including my right arm & shoulder because I had to keep my arm over my head for the procedure. Due to past damages to that arm, not an easy task, and I’m now wracked with pain from the upper arm, shoulder and neck. FUCK me… figures. Norco & me, best friends today once I get back to my bed cave… Bed cave because of the black curtains up on the windows. Curtains which I will soon remove, wash & stash since the huz will no longer be working nights and have to sleep during the day. I can put the florals back up in there. Those, with a new quilt for the bed.. yep, a good thing.

Federal tax deposit hit the bank today. BFD. Nothing I really want. I do have a list of stuff that huzbeast wants so I’ll get to placing those orders tomorrow for him. Ummm… trying to think of what else to add here but I’m drawing a blank. I’m now going to take my coffee into the bedroom, turn the TV on and rest or sleep the day away.

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I did it

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Yes, I did. I got my lazy ass showered and dressed and got to the damn hospital to have blood drawn. I thought I’d just be able to walk into the lab as the nurse directed me to via phone, but nooooooooo — I had to go and sit and wait to friggin’ register. Four people ahead of me. Damn!  I was hoping that waiting until late afternoon would get me in and out quicker. No such luck.

Went shopping in Matamoras’ Price Chopper afterwards. Spent enough to come away with a receipt for accumulated purchases that now grant us $1.60 off each gallon of gas at a Sunoco station for up to a 20 gallon purchase. MUST take one car to a station before the allowance expires and take advantage.

Spent too damn much on groceries, but we’ll eat, so screw it. Bought a beautiful top round roast – it’s HUGE, and I’ll prepare that on Sunday for the huz. Him luvs him some roasted beast and gravy.  There’ll be lots of leftovers. Pepper steak with mushrooms & onions over rice, maybe some sliced up really thin for cheese steak sandwiches. Yep – leftovers are a good thing sometimes. Hit the seafood section and was amazed to find flounder at $3.99 per pound. WTF? Mistake? I questioned the fish monger, he stated they got a great deal on it and that he had already sold over 500 pounds of it so far this week. I bought 4 pounds, had him split it up and tossed some in the freezer. I bet I won’t see that price again for a long, long time.  About 6 months ago I went specifically to buy flounder and it was $16.99 per pound. We bought orange roughy instead.  I also once again bought swiss cheese and mushrooms to make quiche. Now I’ll hope that I actually get to it and not let the mushrooms shrivel up to unrecognizable states again. ;-)

Sit here looking at my damn hands. Christ – looks like the paws of an 80 year old!  OK, so I know I’m slightly dehydrated, need to get some liquids into my system, but … yuck, old lady skin. Moisturizer would help, too, I suppose.

Since my sweet, darling daughter also shopped with me we have extra goodies in the house. Wonder how she’ll feel when I start buying stuff only allowed as per e-diet lists. I haven’t chosen the diet program from the site yet, but will do so very soon. We need to stop with all of the rich, wonderfully indulgent foods, the huz & I, and start eating stuff that’s very good for us. I wonder if Doctor Oz might have some kind of plan up on that site?  I heard him mention recently that he eats blueberries every single day. That they are like the most superdy dooper anti-oxidant fruit, so I bought some. ’spensive suckers, too!  What’s fucked up about that is … that I plan on making home made pancake mix and using the blueberries in them. LOL  We love blueberry pancakes here. Ohhh so yummy… and we mix butter with maple syrup, nuke it, and ladle it over the cakes. OMG, heaven indeed.

So, that’s about it for now. Probably update more on Monday after I get home from the biopsy. I know that I’ll have to stay in the hospital for several hours afterward to be sure my liver doesn’t hemorrhage from the procedure. Have to be sure my iPod is fully charged so I don’t go crazy waiting to be discharged.  I recently loaded the most recent J.D. Robb book, Fantasy in Death to listen to, so that will help me deal with the waiting.

DONE

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Today

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

. . . is my first born’s birthday. He’s 29 years old. ALREADY!  And our baby will be 20 in September. If anyone had told me, “back in the day” (to quote my daughter), that I’d end up with two grown children by age 50 I’d have told them they were full of shit. I never planned to be alive past my 21st, then my 30th birthday. Lived recklessly — dangerously — hoping that life as I knew it would come to a close and I’d be put out of my misery.  That misery is a whole ‘nother box of worms that I won’t open up on this blog, but suffice to say that I did find my ’savior’ in the man that I married but was never totally free until March of 2005 when my mother passed away. That said – move on.

We had a major scare on Tuesday night when the carbon monoxide detector suddenly went off. WTF? OMG!  Huz jumped out of bed, reset it and it immediately started going off again. Turns out the flu for our pellet stove was full of ash and was blocked. While the poor man stood out in the cold in his PJ’s trying to fix the problem, and he probably did, we’ve opted to shut the stove down and rely on oil for heat until he is off from work to dismantle all fittings for the stove, clean them thoroughly and then we’ll give it a good test run to be sure we’re safe.  I did have a headache that night and huzbeast insisted that it was due to the CO and that we should take a trip into the hospital to have my blood levels checked to be sure that I was OK considering the Hep C and all. I refused (of course) but went to bed with that damn headache and slept very poorly all night long. It finally dissipated yesterday around noon and while I was still quite shaken by the entire incident I did feel somewhat better than the night before.

Went and had all of the fasting blood work done. Have I posted that here already? If so, then I’m being repetitive. They took so much damn blood out of my arm . . . Kudos to the tech that drew my blood tho – first time I didn’t feel the needle slide into the vein and she hit on the first try. I have very deep veins and this sometimes proves to be daunting to phlebotomists. Recommendation to locals — need blood drawn? Go on Saturday mornings and hope you draw the same tech I did. She’s most excellent. :)

I’m not going to call the doctor’s office for those results; I’ll wait until my March 1st appointment to get the news. I need to call Horton today to see if they can get me a copy of the results of the liver biopsy I had in ‘06. Note to self: do it TODAY dumbass! Still have to have another biopsy – not something to look forward to, that’s for sure. Awake for the entire procedure and while they do numb up the area that they intend to penetrate with that outrageously LONG needle there is still sensation as bits of the liver are snipped off for testing. And when he (the doc) goes in waaaay deep for that last snip you (well, me) feel like a string is being yanked deep inside that is attached throughout the abdominal region… strange, strange feeling. Patience is a definite virtue afterwards since I have to lie on my right side where the biopsy was taken from so that pressure is applied to the liver to prevent bleeding out. Last time they gave me my Norco after the procedure and I totally zoned out. . . a nurse had come in to check on me and immediately called for help thinking I had gone into crisis. I hadn’t — I was just sleeping, dammit! Make me lay there and order me to not move, what else is there to do but sleep? ;-)

I hope that the next six weeks or so pass quickly so we don’t have to drive ourselves nuts wondering what the results may be. <sigh>

DONE

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