Liver Limbo

When we left off, I was waiting for a call back from the single person who scheduled and performs CT guided needle biopsies. I left my information on Monday and when he hadn't called me back by Thursday, I was started to get a bit annoyed. I then got a cryptic message from my doctor's assistant telling me that she had a message for me. I know there are strict regulations on how to deliver medical information but really, a message to say I have a message? I finally got through to them and was told that my doctor had changed her mind and I would be going for a PET scan instead of a biopsy. Another nuclear test yes, but at least this one didn't involve a huge needle so I wasn't about to complain.

I scheduled my PET for the next available appointment, January 22nd and prepared to wait. The chest pain was gone, and aside from the fatigue, pain when I yawn, and cold symptoms I felt much better - no more crippling pain in the middle of the night. It seemed like I was on the mend until I started having weird, fairly mild stomach aches. I powered through them and figured it was just my body being a pain in the ass until I started to notice some weirdly dark pee. It's a TMI subject but I usually pee clear, so it was a noticeable change when it started getting more and more yellow until this morning when I woke up to nearly orange pee. I also woke up itchy, like I have a bad case of winter skin, especially in my hands and feet. I emailed the doctor who has been most helpful thus far and she told me to take myself post haste to the lab to repeat my blood work. Ugh.

Still thinking it was probably winter skin and my stomach being weird, I finished up my plans for the day and dropped into the Kaiser lab around 5pm. It was pretty busy so I listened to my Harry Potter audiobook while I waited and after a 30 minute wait finally got called in to give blood. I can still only draw from one good vein and after all the IVF tests and lab work I've had done, I swear this vein is going to give up and refuse to give any more blood.

I finished up, headed home, and maybe an hour later my test results came back. They were not favorable. My liver tests were perfect on 12/28 when I first went in to urgent care with the horrible pain, but somehow in the past two weeks they've exploded.

AST:  19 on 12/28, now 249 on 1/13
ALT:   27 on 12/28, now 435 on 1/13
Bilirubin:  0.4, normal is less than 0.2
Alkaline Phosphatase:  50 on 12/28 now 275 on 1/13 

Of course my white count panel, my kidneys and everything else came back perfect, so no signs of infection.  It looks like the lab test results finally caught up to the visible swelling on my CT scan and my liver is angry.  Since my labs were done after hours, I have to wait until tomorrow for the doctor to respond to my email and in the meantime, I'm still itching all over like a crazy person. I still think this is the Lupron but regardless of what it is, my body is not a happy camper.