Monday April 12, 2004
Now that my liver has my attention, well, livers in general... okay, human livers, I am informing myself as much as possible. Some of what I have learned/read is comforting and some not. All of it is fascinating, though. It is the largest organ in your body and can regenerate itself once the antagonist has been removed/stopped. Except for those problems for which there is no cure, in which case things get much scarier: transplants IF a matching donor is available.
To make things more challenging, bad livers have side-effects that my primary medical caretaker doesn't seem to appreciate: mental confusion and extreme sleepiness. I thought for a while the anti-itch remedy was making me sleepy, but now I am not so sure. In a sleep defying stunt, I have stopped taking the remedy for now.
When my GP told me to rest, I didn't take that to mean bed rest, but for several days I have been sleeping whenever my body seems to want. It has been an outrageous amount and I don't seem to ever get enough. This has me wondering whether my sleepiness is a symptom that I should bring to my doc's attention.
If I still had confidence in my GP, that might be an option, but I have pretty well decided I do not. My psych and the emergency room attending physician (to whom my psych suggested I go to get the second opinion I wanted) discussed things surrounding the liver situation and treatment approaches that not only allayed some of my worry but were, I realized exactly the kinds of things I am accustomed to being told by my primary caretaker. That was Thursday.
Friday was the no shopping day and Saturday (after arising at noon) I got food and retrieved from storage my juicer, juicing being a liver-friendly way of getting nutrients because juice is easier to digest (not to mention ingest).
Sleepiness and confusion can be a symptom of meat protein over taxing an impaired liver. The recommentation is to replace some, if not all, of the meat with vegetable and dairy sources. I have a very poor appetite right now and certainly not a lot of energy to put into food prep. Juices are easier to force down when you're not really very hungry but you know you should eat AND take less time to prepare.
Some, but not all, of the apartment reorg has been in support of accomodating kitchen gadgets in my space lean kitchen. Gadgets I already have but have been simply storing until now. I have exactly 4 linear feet of counter top. Really.
Sunday (yesterday), I managed to get the trailer road worthy (flat tires and a salt rusted lock on the hitch, eh) and the last and tallest steel shelf wrestled onto it. The sun was still shining when I finished so I decided to walk to the 24 hour grocery store.
DOH! Easter appears to be to Canadians as Thanksgiving is to Americans, because it was closed for the whole 24 hours of Sunday and won't open until 7 hours into today. (I was really glad I'd gotten food on Saturday, though)
Today I will be attempting to: get bloodwork done; get some banking done; make an appointment with a gastro specialist at the hospital. Oh, and get the shelving into storage. Doesn't sound like much, er, doesn't sound nearly as productive as I am used to being, but it will wear me out I am sure.
I will try to remain calm and rational as I deal with the world today. Luckily, I bet on the weather forecast to be intact this morning and won. Which means it was not raining when I woke up so the shelves are not soaked. So maybe the world doesn't really hate me after all. Maybe.
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