Birthdays and Life Changes

 Whew! Since this weekend, there has been quite a bit going on in my Life. I usually gripe about how boring things are for me, and how nothing exciting happens. Well, I am not saying this was exciting, but it was still a lot to take in.

My friend from Florida, My Ginny, flew in as she does every year for my birthday. At one point during her visit, someone had asked how long we had known each other, and we came up with in our calculations, that it has to have been about 25 years. Already at our Silver Anniversary (I joked to her about it). Either way, we were able to have some one on one time Friday night. Saturday arrived, and I was at the Post by about 11:30am to start the afternoon of my get-together. Overall it went well. Quite a few friends from some of the pubs I attend showed up for a bit. I was a bit more surprised at the number of Post and Aux members that showed up, just for my event. I guess I am liked at the Post more than I thought I was. I didn't get drunk, and kept all the drinks to just shots. Friday night, after a couple beers, I decided beer just wasn't tasting right and decided to get quit drinking beer for a bit. Saturday I had about 10 shots over the course of 12 hours.

Now we need to backstory a bit. Back around early July, my bellybutton decided to become an 'outie' versus his status of years as an 'innie'. It wasn't fully projecting outwards, but was making a transition was very obvious. There was no pain, and I did a quick Google search of what it could be. Obviously, an umbilical hernia, that carried the chance of one of the intestines getting clotted into the 'hole in the muscle wall, etc. For the time being I ignored it, as, well, no pain. Follow through to August, and I start noticing some abdominal pain occurring infrequently. Enough that I couldn't pin point where exactly the issue was. I decided to kind of keep watch and see what happens. By the end of August, I knew something was going on, but no clue. No pain around the bellybutton. I was having bowel issues, as in not having any BMs, except with the use of a laxative, and it was never solid. My abdomen was becoming more projected, and under pressure, literally, to the touch. By my birthday, I couldn't bend over to put on my shoes, the abdomen was so extended and tight, there was no lee way. I also started having quite a bit of pain flashes through the area.

Sunday morning I slept. When I woke, I felt like some of that pressure had lessened, and knowing I had a Dr appointment in November, I wondered if I could hold out that long to get things evaluated. Monday came. By evening, I was worse. Full pressure, shortness of breath, still no BMs, very little urine, no appetite or thirst for the past 2 days. I began to worry. The Wife looked up symptoms, and of course, liver failure was one of the major ones. I refused to believe it was that bad. She offered to take me to the ER if I felt bad enough, but I said no, come morning if it was bad still, I would get an emergency appointment with my Dr and go from there. I made it to about 7am. Woke the Wife, said let's go to the ER.

To cut out the short boring stuff, six hours in at the ER, a CT scan, and blood for labs, they agreed to do a paracentesis, as the abdomen issue was fluid build-up in my body cavity. So they inserted a tube into the side of my abdomen, and proceeded to pump out the fluid. And pump. And pump. All said and done, they removed 11.7 LITERS (that's 25.7 pounds) of fluid from the abdomen area, that was freely floating in there amongst all my organs. Then it was decided they needed to keep me over night to see a GI doctor, as well as monitor me. So, my first time EVER staying in a hospital as a patient, and now that I am home, it sucks. Never recommend. So, still Saturday, the Doctor assigned at the time to me came and explained that I have a decompressed liver. Here's and explanation:

* "Decompressed liver" refers to decompensated cirrhosis, a severe stage of cirrhosis where liver scarring is so extensive that the liver can no longer perform its vital functions properly. This advanced liver disease is marked by symptoms such as jaundice (yellow skin), ascites (abdominal fluid), confusion (hepatic encephalopathy), and bleeding from varices. Causes include viral hepatitis, alcohol-related liver disease, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Treatment focuses on managing complications, addressing the underlying cause of the liver damage, and often involves a liver transplant.

So, yeah. The liver is failing on me. I decided right then that I quit drinking. The Dr asked if I was having the shakes, since it had been about three days since my last drink, and I was like, no. I'm fine. I have been weaning the alcohol back for some time due to the diabetes anyways. Come Wednesday, another Dr assigned to me. Decided I could be discharged allowing that I contact a liver specialist and a GI doctor within the next 4-5 days, as well as my PCP. They gave me 5 new prescriptions temporarily to help, and maybe longer deciding on what these other doctors want to do. At least it cancels out a couple of the ones I currently take. I was able to eat the nasty hospital food Saturday night (first meal in like two plus days) but breakfast and lunch on Wednesday... I couldn't even swallow the first bite. They just tasted to wrong and bad. Wife was there for lunch, had her try the bacon from the BLT wrap I ordered, and she said it as fine. SO I know it was me. Finally got discharged about 4pm, grabbed my papers, stopped at the hospital pharmacy and got the meds, and headed home. Wife stopped at Arbys, as she needed something to eat. I got a regular, plain roast beef, and a vanilla milkshake, both of which went down fine. I crashed when we got home, having not slept much since Sunday morning. Which explains why I am awake at 2:30am.

So no more drinking alcohol. Nobody has modified my diet (as of yet) but I have been good about monitoring with the diabetes. I was told my sodium intake needs to increase (after years of saying to decrease it) mainly because I am on a water pill now and it will drain a lot of sodium and potassium. I think I am sticking to water for now, no tea, no soda, until the doctors are able to determine how bad things are. Who knew turning 54 would be such a life changer.

Today is 9/11 and a day of remembrance for those lost on the airline flights, and buildings the crashes were involved in. The Post is doing a flag raising at 10am I am going to try to be at. Afterwards I need to get to work on the agenda for next week Riders meeting, as well as contact the doctors to get appointments scheduled. Let's see how day one on new pills goes...

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

PeacE