My Uncle John

My uncle John passed away last Thursday. It was a surprise for all of us. He had a heart attack in the shower. He was only 49. This has been hard for me and my family. I hadn't see much of him in recent years, but have a lot of good childhood memories that include him. He spent a lot of time at my apartment with my mother and I shortly after my parent's divorce. Sometimes he would babysit. I remember watching tv (most likely the Love Boat) with him and laughing about the afghan my grandmother had made that had a lot of holes in it. She made it with love and it was warm, but we couldn't figure out why it was warm because it had so many holes. The holes were part of the pattern. We laughed so hard about that. Another time he came over and made us breakfast. This was a special occasion. I don't remember what he made us, but I do recall it involved eggs and milk. He loved milk. He drank more milk than anyone I had ever seen. John was a very sensitive person with an enormous heart. He loved his children more than anything else in the world. He will be missed.

I Love Sedatives

I had an ultrasound and an endoscopy last week at the BIDMC in Boston.

I hate having ultrasounds. I hate lying on the bed and having them slather that cold jelly-like substance all over my abdomen. I hate the feeling of them rolling that microphone shaped thing all over my liver and kidneys. I hate having ultrasounds because they bring me back to a time in my life when my liver disease was bad and the chances of my needing a transplant were likely. They didn't do the doplar ultrasound this time. They said it looked like my last ultrasound. I have a liver. My gall bladder is higher than most peoples. My liver isn't as healthy as everyone elses. Fortunately things have stayed the same. I most likely will be keeping my own liver for awhile.

After my ultrasound I ran over to the 8th floor in the Farr building for my endoscopy. I showed signs of portal hypertension in my liver a few years back so I have an endoscopy every two years to check for varices in my esophagus. Fortunately everything checked out ok. I hate having an endoscopy, but I love the sedatives. I even told this to the nurse who checked me in. I think she thought I was a little wierd. Heck...I am wierd. Since I cannot really drink...and should stay away from illegal drugs.....the sedatives are the best I can hope for.

After my procedure I spoke to my doctor for a few minutes. She told me that she wants me to come in for a biopsy at some point. We will talk about it when I see her in May. I was a little surprised by this because I thought if things looked good then we wouldn't go this route. I guess I was wrong.

I had something called a fibroscan a couple of weeks ago too. Fibroscans are approved in France and the BIDMC is doing research to get it approved in this country. The fibroscan sends a little soundwave into my liver and measures how squishy it is. Squishy was the exact term my doctor used. My fibroscan came back as a 9.3 This is high, but not cirotic...this is good news. They can't use this score as an official measure of what is going on (because it is only research), but it does give us some idea.

I also had a bone density test on the same day as the fibroscan. They said I was dense. This is cool...it isn't the first time I have been called dense. I have a bone density test every couple fo years because I was on that God awful Prednisone for so long. Lets hope I'll stay dense for a long time.