"There's a myth that anyone who has a liver problem has brought it on themselves" This quote is from a Crohn's disease patient living with a blocked portal vein hoping for a liver transplant (Independent 31st Oct 2010)

Saturday 18 December 2010

Doctor. Please find my missing jigsaw piece


Since I went to the GP in May I've had enough blood samples sent to labs to do 76 tests. An x-ray, two CT scans and a MRI scan. That's an 80 piece jigsaw.

Hepatitis A doesn't match the picture on the box. It's not a chronic condition and doesn't cause liver damage. Neither does E.
We have all the Hep B pieces to complete an old jigsaw, but no shiny brand new bits for those suspicious areas in the liver.
There are enough pieces to know that Hep C and D have been matched and tested and they came back negative for this jigsaw as well.
That leaves Autoimmune. I've got all the edge pieces, the corners and pretty much all the rest. I've even got a special piece, a piece I'm pretty sure is a positive autoantibody for autoimmune. But I need a hepatologist to check if it really fits. And I need Dr C to find that piece hiding in the biopsy material. Hurry up Dr and find it for me. Just in case the doctor with the missing piece doesn't spot the space for it, I've asked a new doctor, a hepatologist, to try and make the jigsaw fit too.
Sadly it looks as though, what with decorating their trees and last minute present shopping (all their Amazon orders are stuck in a snowbound warehouse somewhere) they haven't got time to finish the jigsaw before Christmas.
Raising a glass to GP coz who spotted back in November some signs of autoimmune (and she hasn't even seen me, the liver or the jigsaw).
And raising a glass to the British Liver Trust hepatologist who set me off on this detective trail by recognising from the pathology report that something is going on and it isn't the inactive Hep B.
Oh, and the raised glass is orange juice.
Cheers all!!

3 comments:

  1. You know what Fiona, some people would have given up by now and just left it in the hands of the doctors - and never got their answers.

    You WILL get answers unfortunately just not as quickly as you'd like.

    Raising a glass to your GP and the BLT Hep guy too...and mine's an organic Orange Squash :-)

    xxxx

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  2. Thanks Carole. You're not a givver upper either!
    When I get fed up and whiney I just have to read Loopy's latest blog post and it makes me realise how pathetic I sound.

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  3. I completely agree...I just love that girl so much because she's a true warrior....

    If I'm feeling sorry for myself (quite often these days) I stop and think about Loopy struggling, at times completely alone. Really does help to get things into perspective & remind me of how lucky I am.

    You will get your answers Fiona - they'll come in the new year and hopefully 2011 will be so much better for us all.
    xxxx

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