Fun From the 4th

This firework was called 'Picture Perfect'. I picked it out... told Jeremy it would be pretty sweet - minus the debris that fell on us and our house after it was fired! Lol.

Support Through Facebook

Each and every day I learn more about Autoimmune Hepatitis, however there are still some lingering questions in my mind. I've found a group recently on Facebook of others who also have AIH and I'm finding it very supportive and useful. It lets me know that I am not the only one out there who has the same concerns/questions. Here is the link if you are interested:

Facebook: AutoImmune Hepatitis

I have posted a few things on there myself in order to help others who have found out recently that they too also have AIH. It's not going to be the same for everyone because everyone is different and has different reactions to medicines. What DOES matter is just staying positive through it all. I'm sure that everyone has their moments when they ask, "Why me?" but in the end there's nothing you can do about it but deal with it and go on with life. You most definitely can still LIVE life to it's fullest potential, even if the autoimmune disorder may not necessarily have been part of the "plan". Who's to say there even is a "plan". We don't know what is going to happen tomorrow let alone years from now. It may not even be AIH. There are other autoimmune disorders out there that I am sure are just as difficult to cope with and/or have not-so-comfortable side effects.

As for me I'm doing my best to stay positive. REALLY looking forward to getting some more results here in just over a week. I have some goals set in my mind right now and I'm very much looking forward to achieving them. =]

LOVE YOUR LIVER. 

AFTER ALL, YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT.

Happy 4th of July!

Hope that everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July! We all definitely have a lot to be thankful for because of our troops! THANK YOU!

The Knee Bone's Connected To...

Jeremy went to the knee specialist on Friday... He believes that Jeremy has a torn meniscus. And because I'm not 'up-to-date' on what a meniscus is, I thought I'd share this definition:

The meniscus is a rubbery, C-shaped disc that cushions your knee. Each knee has two menisci (plural of meniscus)-one at the outer edge of the knee and one at the inner edge. The menisci keep your knee steady by balancing your weight across the knee. A torn meniscus can prevent your knee from working right.

If this definition just doesn't do it for you, you can check out more at this link:
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/meniscus-tear-topic-overview

When in doubt, go to WebMD.

So, what does this mean? Jeremy has an MRI scheduled for next week to determine if a torn meniscus is really what has been causing him so much pain in his knee. He then has a follow up appointment for the results from the MRI and will start physical therapy the following week. No worries Brew Crew, Mean Greene will still be ready to play softball on Tuesday nights. Cue 'Nothing's going to stop us now' music.

As for me... still feeling good and ready to find out some good results in a few weeks!

Happy Father's Day!!

Results...

I got the results back today from the blood work that I had done on Wednesday. Originally my liver enzyme levels were at 1500 and now they are down to 300! The doctor says that this is still a fairly high level (they are supposed to be 30-40) but that it's definitely going in the right direction. He wants me to stay on my current dosage of medicine for another month and then have more blood work done to check the levels again. Let's hope they can get under 100 soon!

Update on Jeremy -
He's been having problems with his knee lately... went to the family doc today and he referred him to a specialist. He has an appointment on June 24th so we will see what happens from there.

All of these doctors appointments are making us feel OLD!

To end on a positive note... We are thinking of taking a mini vacation in October. Believe me, we need it! Hope that everyone has a great weekend!

God Never Blinks

Well... I thought I'd give an update on everything since it's been a little while. Results came back... I had the liver biopsy on May 19, 2011. Took a couple days off from work to recover from it, but over all it wasn't as bad as I had originally thought it would be. Word of advice... if you ever have to have surgery and you're not sure what exactly is going to happen, DON'T look it up on the Internet. IT WILL FREAK YOU OUT AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. Sure there are extreme cases sometimes, but more than likely it won't be you and there's no reason to worry about it and let it ruin your day. Ok, now that I've had my two cents about that...

Results from the biopsy came back about a week later and I was officially diagnosed with Autoimmune Hepatitis (where your immune system attacks your bad AND healthy liver cells). My doctor had a suspicion from the beginning that this is what my symptoms were pointing to. I'd never even heard of this disease before, so I didn't really know what to expect - and really still don't but I'm learning more each day/week/month...

Before anyone jumps to conclusions, no this is not caused from drug use (def DON'T do drugs) or unhealthy habits or any other crazy thing that might be out there and NO it is NOT contagious. Doctors aren't sure what causes autoimmune diseases and there is no way to prevent them from happening. In my case, autoimmune hepatitis is more common in women (got to love those XX chromosomes) and can often result from genetics (my mom has rheumatoid arthritis, another autoimmune disease). These are pretty much the only reasons I can think of that may have caused me to now have this autoimmune disease. Good news though - my doctor said it was caught EARLY - there was no scarring or cirrhosis on my liver.

-WHAT I CAN'T DO -

Drink Alcohol - Probably forever

Take Tylenol - No worries, headaches are for the birds

-WHAT I CAN DO- 

Everything Else!! 

-WHAT TO EXPECT -

From here on out I will be getting blood work done every now and then just to make sure that my liver enzyme and blood count levels are where they need to be. The medicines I am currently taking help with any inflammation in my liver and suppress my immune system so it won't attack my liver. I had my last blood work done today to check my enzymes so I'm hoping to get good results back from this later in the week! I also had blood work last week to check my blood count - doctor said that everything looks good!!

Another side note - I've been told that normally people with this disease can go into remission within the first 3 years after being diagnosed... since mine was caught a little earlier, I was told it could possibly be sooner than this for me. This is what I'm hoping for! I will do my best to keep everyone updated... sometimes it can be hard with having a busy schedule but I thank you for reading and for your support!

Everything can change in the blink of an eye. 
But don't worry; God never blinks.