Happy Anniversary!

Wow, blog slacker here to say the least. I realized my last post was a cliffhanger...Meeting with the surgeon. Well that was uneventful to say the least. My 2 hour drive to Walnut Creek was for a 5 minute appointment. Turns out they wanted to do another scan on me in Sacramento. My lesion is "weird" according to the surgeon. I think the various synonyms for weird have been used one too many times in my health records. Apparently Adenomas and Hemangiomas usually have pretty distinct shapes-Usually of a round variety. What fun is it to be usual? Mine is apparently wedge shaped. Like cheese. I do love cheese so maybe my body is having some fun. So, I went back to Sacramento and had another nuclear scan. The not-so-definitive diagnosis is that it is in fact a Hemangioma. So, we'll monitor with MRI's periodically but otherwise leave it alone. I don't love the fact that no one feels 100% confident in this diagnosis, but I'm happy to not have surgery.

But the real reason why I (finally) am posting today is because HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to me! It's been one year today since I was diagnosed with AIH. A crazy year for sure! One year ago today I met Dr. M. for the first time and he told me 3 horrible things.

1. I have a chronic illness that could lead to liver failure, liver transplant, liver cancer, or early death.
2. I would have to wait at least 2 years before I could get pregnant
3. I would never be able to drink alcohol again.

Of those 3 horrible things the one that produced the most tears was #2. Some women (ie, me) get to a point where their biological clock has an alarm feature that just doesn't turn off. Unfortunately for me, mine was blaring one year ago. I was upset that I had this disease of course, but I trust Western Medicine and figured it could be treated, and there would be advancements etc. But dammit I wanted babies. NOW. But, I also wanted to be healthy and have healthy babies so I sucked it up and dealt with the blow.

Lucky for me that belief in Western Medicine was a good one because Dr. M. said with the way I responded to medicine it could be sooner. My ALT's and AST's normalized at the end of January (14 months after my initial bad bloodwork/hospitalization. I was put back on Prednisone (boo) so that I could prepare for pregnancy. My other medicines could cause birth defects, and one was too new to know what kind of side effects. Prednisone as crappy as it is has been around and has been proven to be safe. Luckily I was on a lower dose-only 15 mg this time and my liver #'s are holding steady. I've been "normal" for 4 months now. Well my liver has at least! Dr. M said 4-6 months of normal #'s before I get the ok to try. so I'm incredibly lucky that my 2 year wait turned in to only one. I'm lucky that my liver is good, and I've been otherwise healthy since the start of the year. I'm lucky I'm surrounded by awesome family and friends and I wouldn't have made it through this year without them. And hopefully I'll be making another lucky announcement soon. But until then, I'll enjoy my O'douls Amber....Cheers!