"To infinity and beyond"

Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3
Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3 Member Posts: 3,817 Member

My never-boring, fifteen-year HL adventure has a new twist: I'm scheduled for a liver biopsy in about a month. My enzymes won't play right, and the gastro people want to find out why. I've already had a lot of lab and ultrasound work. It is NOT believed to be malignant in causality. Their best-guess is that it is a long term reaction to chemo and NSAIDS, but we shall see.

Another factor is of course that modern medicine is lawyer and insurance driven, and any question left unanswered is regarded as a legal liability; doctor judgement is basically coopted by flow charts and statistics.

The test is I.R., entering via the jugular vein. I am not worried, and believe that it will reveal nothing of worth. But, when gastro runs out of tests, they will leave me alone

max

Comments

  • PBL
    PBL Member Posts: 366 Member

    Hi Max,

    Sorry to read about your latest development. I assume it must have been going on for a while for all those tests to be carried out. I learned from experience that NSAIDS will indeed propel your liver enzymes through the roof - but mine returned to normal over the course of a few weeks. I hope you're not having too many symptoms from it and that they do find some way to get your liver back to normal.

    PBL

  • po18guy
    po18guy Member Posts: 1,505 Member

    Mathematicians have discovered a number larger than infinity: Infinity plus shipping and handling.

    It's always something. Good grief. I guess they reduce the risk of an abdominal biopsy by entering from two feet away. Back to work I go on your behalf.

  • ShadyGuy
    ShadyGuy Member Posts: 922 Member

    Hey Max! Glad to hear from you. If we can work out a deal I will trade you my pancreatitis for your high liver enzymes. Pancreatitis hurts like he ell. I will give you a good deal. Be well buddy!

  • Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3
    Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3 Member Posts: 3,817 Member

    Sorry, Shady. I asked the IG staff, and they said if I don't acquiesce to these tests, I will "Wake up with a horse's head in my bed." I have around 20 other issues that I would consider trading for ones of equal or lesser value, however.

  • Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3
    Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3 Member Posts: 3,817 Member

    My robotic proctectomy pulled the gland out through an incision well above the naval. So, the easiest way for them to get to a gland under the bladder is from the diaphragm ? All of that space had to be ballooned out by pressurizing it with CO2, sufficient for a remote control scalpel , light, and video camera to move about, along with the connecting hoses.