Finding the Phantom

We have found the Phantom that has been plaguing me and my timeline has been removed. It is nice to finally have an answer and to know what it is you're up against. From what I was told, most people aren't given the diagnosis until-well-it's way too late to be of any use for them to know what it was.

In Feb, I was informed I was starting to suffer from some liver damage. That little foot in the door was just enough, within a week-my mild damage begun to spiral out into failure. By March I was given 3-6 months-nothing could be done.

We didn’t buy that and neither did my good doctor. Every week he told me to keep having hope, not to give in.

Since March every few days another blood test, scan, Dr appts, just trying to solve the mystery before it was to late. (Side note—the hospital up here is not certified to run lots of the genetic tests-I would know-I was the first one ever to be tested for things at the hospital).

About 2 weeks ago, the 6th or 7th Doctor told me there was nothing more he could do. He said to just go home and enjoy what time I had. (Yes-I did go to work later that day-My thoughts were “Either I will beat this and I’ll be behind in work OR I might not and someone will have extra work dumped on them at the last minute”).

So I made another appointment with another Dr for 2 days later. This Dr and my “good” Dr collaborated, reviewed all the labs, scans, notes, and figured my body was attacking my liver to the point of nearly killing it.

Basically (in a nutshell) I have the weirdest luck. Last summer I had the fun hospital stay-and they never figured out what caused it, so the doctors have been trying different meds to see what works and doesn’t. Well one of them triggered some mild damage, which lead to the domino effect.

I am now getting some new meds-they are a little on the scary side-one of the side effects is lymphoma. However, as my Dr said, they can treat lymphoma-he’s yet to find a cure for death.

After many weeks, appts, tests, prayers, sleepless nights, its nice to have a name and a battle plan. It might not have been what I wanted-but at least I got something-I don’t have a time limit (that I’m aware of) and I can live with that. ^_^