Pete’s Musings

Looks like I’ve been a bit remiss in my blogging. I guess I’ve been a bit preoccupied with all the goings on around here. I’ve been to my doctors, things are looking ok. My liver enzymes are dropping and so is the evil prednisone that goes along with them. My blood pressure is good. And I’ve been following my blood sugar also, which seems ok. Gets a bit high after supper, but not too high that it’s dangerous. Important thing is that it’s normal in the day and not high all the time. It seems to bounce back fairly rapidly too, so i’m producing plenty of insulin. It’s just the prednisone that Read More »

It’s April, this month marks 3 years since I returned to Canada after my postdoc and PhD in the US. That’s a long time. And what a mess it’s been for the most part!

When I returned to Canada, I was burnt out from research and in a depression of sorts. My intention was to take a few months off and just relax, something I never did between all my other major life changes (i.e. between my various degrees). At the same time, I figured that I would be able to stay with my sister for a short time, help out a little bit with her kids (who were still in after school daycare at the time!) … all this while myself getting settled back in Canada and start looking for a job.

Well it certainly didn’t turn out that way! The first few months were fine. Getting to know the kids as their unique personalities started to develop, spend some time with them, have fun. Made the decision to move in with my sister, finding a nice place to live closer to her work and where I could be around, but still independent. That didn’t last too long. I quickly became wrapped up in all the household disagreements and troubles … then I started to get sick. Read More »

Just thought I would post to let everyone know that things went well with the surgery to plug the hole (fistula) in my liver. I had the operation last Monday (March 31st) in the afternoon and was sent home via adapted transport early evening on Wednesday. When they told me they were sending me home so soon I was kinda freaked out because I was having constant liver pain, still had residual bloody stools, and was experiencing fatigue and exhaustion 10-20 times sooner than before (and that was already way too soon for comfort). But a little reassurance from my doctor that the bleed shouldn’t reoccur and I was ready to come home … just being in the hospital was driving me crazy. All those sick and annoying people screaming all day long. lol.

Anyway here’s what happened … Read More »

I was in the midst of writing a huge and awesome blog post about my surgery … when I accidentally hit the backspace key outside of a text box! In firefox, that means that the page goes back to previous in history and I LOST THE POST. I was devastated. Not only was it thorough and well written, it was funny. I wanted to cry. Anyway, I guess I’ll get back to it soon, but in the meantime I decided to make a few changes here.

1) I added a message me box to the right. If you write me a message there it goes directly to my new Instant Messaging software. If you stick around, Read More »

So i hauled myself into Montreal Thursday morning to see my regular liver specialist at the Royal Victoria Hospital. I like my doctor. When I get to see him 1:1, we work together to figure shit out. And he seems to have a good sense of when to ‘wait and see’ and when to take immediate action. This was one of those immediate action things. lol

So I had this camera capsule endoscopy thing last week. Looks throughout the intestines where the gastro- and colono-scopies can’t reach. It didn’t show anything unusual. I had more bleeding on Wednesday and an ‘episode’ on Tuesday … so something definitely up. Doctor could see that the drive in to see him had already taken a lot out of me, so he pulled a few strings and called in a favour to get me admitted to the short term stay unit so i could take some immediate tests. I love my Doctor. A trip to the ER would have done me in. Had a CT scan (yay, my weight is now safely under their arbitrary cutoff point), and also repeated the colonoscopy. Colonoscopy was clear (and quite uncomfortable I must say!). But FINALLY, they found the problem in the CT and it was just like my doctor had suspected after reviewing everything during my appointment.

Surprise surprise … a rare complication of my transjugular liver biopsy Read More »

I’m at home this weekend on a bit of a break from the tests at the hospital. “Conge” as the french nurses call it, which means vacation. LoL. Not quite that, but it does feel good to be home and I’m doing pretty well. Sleeping solid for 6-8 hours 2 nights in a row. Still able to do a bit of work like dishes and cleaning a bit of the fridge. Still have the pain in my gut when up and about for a while, but nothing too intense. Haven’t had any intense pain in my liver/gallbladder area since my last night in the hospital 3 days ago. Then it lasted for 4-5 hours and required a shot of pain killer. I think it was brought on by ‘trying too hard’ to produce a stool, which makes since as this is what also seemed to immediately precede my second ‘episode’ on Friday (two weeks ago now).
Doctors still haven’t given me a clear idea of what’s going on and Read More »

I think I posted before that on last friday I had 2 fainting/weakness episodes after brief abdominal pain, Bloody stools the day after. Then all seemed ok on Sunday with normal stool and feeling ok. No such luck. Took shower at 2 pm or so and had another episode, but this time the pain and rest of it did not pass after 20-30 mins like before. Didn’t pass for over a day.

Called ambulance immediately on Sunday of course (had enough of that crap!). Good thing too. By the time they arrived I was white as a sheet, barely able to move and in intense unrelenting pain. Blood pressure was something like 67/29 … Read More »

It’s been over 3 weeks since I had my liver biopsy and I’ve been worried and sick ever since. I know something is very wrong in there and just don’t know what’s can be done about it. As I said in last post, I had to go to the hospital a week after the biopsy because I was feeling so horrible and in pain. The pain has subsided a bit … but only if I don’t really do anything at all. That’s no way to live for sure.

I went in for another blood test today, Read More »