The dreaded......Infection

Yes, it finally happened. I was hit by a side effect of a failing liver. The bile duct that my disease is affecting became to constricted to let bile flow through correctly. It became clogged and caused an infection causing me to become sick with headache, body ache, flu like symptoms. I gave blood Friday morning and had MELD score of 34, which clearly showed there was a liver problem and got me admitted to the hospital Friday afternoon.

Much blood was drawn for testing and cultures. The headaches would not go away with any of the pain medications they were trying so CT Scans of the head were done. They were clear and they tried to decide what to do next. They pumped in the antibiotics hoping that taking care of the infection would relieve the headache and fever.

Sunday was much of the same. They did brain and abdomen MRI's to get more detailed pictures. With the brain part of it still clear they figured the headaches would go away when they took care of the liver.

Monday's schedule included a Spinal Tap, just to be sure there was no infection in the spinal fluid, an ERCP, which is a scope down the throat with a camera and has room in the tube to send various roto rooter tools to clean the liver's main bile duct and insert a stint to hold the duct open which they did. Everything went well. Finished around 6 pm so another night in the hospital while they got another look at all the results.

Tuesday morning they told me about some possible problems in the stomach that they got a quick look at during the ERCP. They were going to go back in with just a camera to have a look around. Taking care of the clogged bile duct did the trick. It started the liver functioning more correctly which relieved some building back pressure to the veins in my stomach. They were no longer bleeding.

A busy four or five days but, all is well. Back to waiting and hoping everything continues to go well. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, Joe.