Tag: hospital

Liver biopsy

I’m waiting to be picked up by my parents who are coming with me to the hospital for my biopsy today. I know what to expect so I’m not feeling nervous, but I still don’t want to have it done because it’s a whole day in the hospital.

I’m allowed to drink water until 8:30am (so, for the next 20 minutes or so), but I’m not allowed to eat anything until after I’ve had it done. I’m just having a read through the Patient Information leaflet I was given at the pre-assessment.

I’ll likely be home from work tomorrow so I’ll try and keep you all updated.

The only good thing thing about having an appointment early in the morning is that you’re going home when everyone else is going to work. I’m on my way to my second appointment of the week (and of the day) with the third one tomorrow morning, which will ultimately be an all day thing because they have to observe me for six hours after they’ve done the biopsy. I’m starting to wonder if I should get my mail forwarded to the hospital, I spend so much time there.

Yet another MRI.

So, it turns out that last MRI I had didn’t capture all the images they wanted so I have to have a third this Monday morning. It’s not that I mind having it done because I now know what to expect, it’s just I don’t want to have to go to the hospital again. I’ve got three days in the next week where I’m not working but all of them will be spent at the hospital; tomorrow afternoon is my biopsy pre-assessment, Monday morning is the MRI, and Tuesday is the biopsy proper which will be a whole day. I’m going to try and go to bed early this weekend.

I’ve got my second MRI this afternoon. It’s so they can take a better look at my liver but it’s the biopsy that’ll tell for definite.

I worked out that I have eight appointments coming up in the next two months; six are at the hospital, one’s a stoma check that’s been pushed back since before Christmas, and the last one is to sort out my Pills. I just hope my work can arrange my days off so I don’t have to change any of them.

I had my MRI scan yesterday but I probably won’t get the results for a while though. It took about thirty minutes and apart from it being a little close in the machine, I found it wasn’t that bad. A friend of mine has had a few and she advised me on what to expect. The nurses/technicians gave me ear plugs and headphone which they could talk to me through as well as play music. There were no canulas this time and the pineapple juice was just pineapple juice (something to do with the magnet). Although I don’t usually get claustrophobic, I found it was easier to just lay with my eyes closed and listening to the machine around me. They gave me a panic button just in case but I found I didn’t need it once the scan started.

I’ve got my MRI next week! I sort of know what to expect but does anyone have any tips/advice? They sent a leaflet with the appointment letter explaining I can’t eat before and I’ll need to drink “pineapple juice” when I get there. They may also have to pump dye in too but they struggled to get a cannula in me before my CT scan so I really hope they won’t have to do that this time.

Also, I may know why my Pill has stopped working. I spoke to my doctor this morning about it and she said it could be to do with my liver; that’s where a lot of these things would be absorbed so if it’s not working properly then medications might not work properly. It does make sense; my symptoms started shortly after I noticed my pills not working. The doctor has changed the type of Pill I’m on so hopefully that’ll do the trick.

I had my CT scan this morning. It took four tries to get a cannula in (my veins were not having any of it), and the dye they pumped into me was a little painful at first (because they had to use a tiny vein near my wrist/thumb), but it was over pretty quickly. I’m expecting result within the next few weeks.

For anyone going for their first CT scan, just be aware (because you nurse might not be as kind as mine was to warn you) once they start pumping the dye in, it can feel like you are wetting yourself. You’re not, it;s just the dye. It’s feels very weird. Also, my tongue went slightly numb for a bit. Has anyone ever experienced anything weird like that during a CT scan? Or any other type of scan?

Proper update

Ok, so let explained what happened yesterday; after I got to the hospital, I had bloods taken and a cannula fitted before being moved into the AAU (Acute Assessment Unit) where I experienced a major flare of pain in my stomach. They gave me oral morphine (which tasted like fruity vodka) but it didn’t seem to do a lot so a little bit later a nurse came over with two syringes of IV morphine which she gave me little by little. This helped to numb the pain enough for it to be bearable. They then took me for both a chest and abdominal x-ray before taking me up to ASU (Acute Surgical Unit). By this time, the pain had gone down enough for me to have a shower and change my bag but I was nil-by-mouth in case they needed to do surgery for any reason. I did notice my stoma was protruding more than normal but it seems to have gone back to normal so I’m putting that down to muscle strain.

Eventually, the doctors came round and I was seem a whole three times! (And on a Sunday too) They checked how my stomach felt and decided that I needed an ultrasound. They booked it for this morning but said I could go home provided I wasn’t in too much pain. Thankfully, the pain went away with the morphine and I’ve been given dihydrocodeine to take home.

The ultrasound was to check it was gall stones, which they’d remove if needed. And if it wasn’t my gall bladder, then they’d check for inflammation in my stomach. As it turns out, they actually couldn’t see my gall bladder because my liver has somehow become twice the size it’s meant to be, which would explain the pain. The consulting surgeon I saw after the ultrasound said he would refer me to a liver specialist but to take it easy in the meantime.

My boss has been amazingly understanding, as usual, so I’m taking the rest of today off work to rest my sore muscles.

I’m hoping this’ll be easily fixed and not affect my stoma or interfere with future surgeries.