Yesterday I had my annual abdominal MRI with elastography in the morning over at the UK building I actually see from my desk every day. They gave me happy pills to take an hour or two beofre plus one for right before the test. I don't do close spaces. Fortunately, a friend could drive me and she picked me up, and I was off the whole day despite an early MRI because I was drugged. I figrued I had to make sure I didn't giggle when the paddle shook my whole abdomen like a bowl full of Jello. Composure, Lisa, composure, even on lorazepam, although last time I never felt 'drugged', I just didn't care that I was in a close tube with my shoulders scrunched. As it should be. Fortunately this seemed to go better than last time, although putting in the IV blood just got everywhere.
It was over and I was home by about 11:30. I went ahead and had some cereal (I hadn't eaten anything, although technically not ordered to fast, since it was the abdomen, it seemed a plan.) Then I went straight to bed by noon. My roommate woke me up at about 5 to see if I was okay while taking a break from cooking the Shabbos meal. I was up, in a way, listing though. I was really fighting to stay awake. I took one pill at 7 am and one at about 9 am as directed, and I was still pretty loopy eight hours after that with no sign of clearing. My CGM supplies finally came yesterday, so I got the sensor on and was waiting for the warmup, so I'll be able to see my blood sugars in real time again. I tested and it was pretty high, 244, as I hadn't taken any other meds that day until late. I didn't take the bandage off for a long time where they did the IV, but I got the annoying wristband off as soon as I could.
Last night I crashed for four hours, got up at midnight to do the dishes, and went straight back to sleep. This morning I woke up early but felt a little hungover, so apparently, lorazepam is pretty strong for me. I got up, made coffee for my friend, woke him, spoke with him before he started his Zoom services, and promptly went back to sleep for another hour and a half. I finally feel like myself again--still wobbly, but that's normal. I've stopped walking into walls, mostly, at least.
I did take a quick peek at my results on MyChart (yes, I know, I have a telehealth appointment to discuss it Monday with my provider, but still). Everything is pretty much the same (yay, gallstones!), but also my fat in the liver went down from 14% to 11%, so that weight loss seems to have some good effect and while I'm the same level on the elasticity/fibrosis/cirrhosis scale, I went down a few tenths of a point, and that's good. So I'm happy. Fatty liver caun cause non-alcoholic nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an aggressive form of fatty liver disease, and even tumours that had to be treated with local chemotherapy. It affected her ability to clear out certain toxins, including ammonia, and it would make her very confused as a result. My stepfather once found her 'making soup'. She had just put a Bic lighter in the microwave and was about to hit the button. She had to have her keys taken away from her because she couldn't remember how to shift the car. She would be fine early in the day and terribly confused at the end. The main treatments were large amounts of laxatives and countless paracenteses (when you have fluid drawn off your abdomen with a very large needle put into your abdomen. At one point it affected her kidneys and she needed one-time dialysis. It's a horrible disease. and it is what killed her, with terrible pain while she was in hospice. And that's just what I saw. My stepfather bore the brunt of taking care of her. I want to do what I can to not go down that road. Please, if you ever come up with 'slightly elevated liver enzymes, don't just take the explanation that you might be taking Tylenol. If you have a family history, are diabetic, or are obese, ask for an ultrasound with elastography. That's what I did, and it scared me because initially, the results were cirrhosis, which is why we did last year's MRI, which showed that it was medium fibrosis, which can still be reversed or lessened with effort. I'd had those elevated values since my 30s, just like my mom did, but it wasn't until I advocated for myself and my endocrinologist ordered the test, mostly to put my mind at ease, that I got more information about my health and how to treat it.
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