My Liver?

It is getting to the point where when I see a number with a 717 area code on my caller I.D. and it's not Jen, it takes every ounce of willpower I have to answer the phone. With my track record lately, the chance that it is going to be good news is slim to none, and, frankly, it is beginning to get a bit boring. I got a call from Sandra, the transplant coordinator, a few days after my first round of tests. She opened with, "I am looking at your ultrasound results..." and paused for my response. I couldn't say anything right away because 1.) they never call when everything is fine and 2.) Sandra didn't really have that "I am about to give you some fabulous news" tone in her voice. I needed a moment to brace myself, so I took a deep breath and simply said, "Yes..." She said the doctors had seen "something questionable" on my liver and that I would need an MRI to get a better look at it. Timeout. What?!?! First of all, I have never had problems with my liver. My liver function studies have been perfect since day one. And secondly, what the hell does "something questionable" mean? Is it a mass, blockage, scarring, lesion, density or what? Note to health care professionals: "Something questionable" is not helpful...at all. Sandra had no further information, meaning I would be left to ponder the unknown until the MRI. Luckily, they were able to schedule it on the same day as my transplant evaluation appointment which is coming up this Thursday. As if the day wasn't already jam-packed with fun! In addition to the MRI, this is the day I will meet the entire transplant team, attend some sort of information session and get more blood/tissue typing blood work. I also have an EKG, echo cardiogram, flu and pneumonia vaccines, and TB test scheduled for that day. On the plus side, after Thursday, I will be about 95% finished with my evaluation, putting me that much closer to being re listed.

In other news, I had an appointment with Dr. Cool Whip this week and the kidney seems to be holding its own. My creatinine is still 2.5, exactly what it has been since early June. It doesn't look like the kidney is in any rush to fail completely. He did notice a significant increase, however, in my parathyroid hormone (PTH). Basically, when your kidneys are healthy, they turn the Vitamin D that you eat into a working hormone, calcitriol, which helps increase calcium absorption from the intestines into the blood. When the kidneys fail, they obviously stop doing that, and the parathyroid glands pick up the slack by producing PTH to take over for the calcitriol. (And yes, I had to look all of this information up. There is no way I could remember it all!) While it seems like this would be a great solution, you really don't want your parathyroid glands freaking out either. Dr. Cool Whip thought it would be a good idea, then, to prescribe calcitriol for me in order to take some of the pressure off the parathyroid and lower my PTH. So, with the exception of a high PTH and a stubborn hemoglobin level that refuses to go any higher than 8.0, the kidney is holding steady.

Now, about that liver...