A New Path?

Wednesday - December 11, 2013

Another hospital clinic with another glorious UCSF view takes some of the sting out of the realization that I seem to be embarking on a new path ... investigating liver damage.  Underlying cause(s) and treatment options are amorphous.  At this point, we need to nail down what exactly is going on.  My pair of doctors (LOVE teaching hospitals!  Can't imagine going anywhere else!) laid out a number of possible causes for my continued abnormally high liver enzymes and their clear red flag indication of liver issues.  They don't feel that next Wednesday's liver ultrasound will surface the answer so now I am also scheduled for more targeted blood work and a GI x-ray on Wednesday.  These tests will almost certainly followed by a liver biopsy.  The attending physician gave a detailed description of the biopsy and my reaction is basically [shrug].  After a catheter angiogram into my brain, innumerable lumbar punctures, and a bone marrow biopsy complete with an oncology fellow narrating the procedure within earshot  to a medical student?  Sounds like a liver biopsy is nothing to get torqued up about.  The biopsy will probably happen before Christmas and perhaps then this new path may solidify.

As for my nightly battle with food and digestion, my team has given me a prescription :)  While I am very VERY wary about eating anything but bread in the evening, I am feeling emboldened so we are having pasta and sauce.  We'll see ....