Don't Go Looking It Up!

When I was growing up, we had a World Book Encyclopedia in the house, which my father thought we should have for research purposes, or something. My mother was right on board with that, but for her, the World Book was the place she looked up all her symptoms to see what she had now. I have often thought that my mother with free access to WebMD would have been a frightening thing.

When K got sick in high school, and we finally got to the right specialist, he said to me at one point during the exam "Now don't go looking it up on the Internet!" Well, I waited a couple of weeks but then I did look it up and what I found out was that he had written some of the articles I found, so I didn't learn anything scary or new because he had already told us everything.

Now, last night, being tired and all, I did not go looking up fatty liver and all that, but I did this morning once I got to school, and the most amazing thing happened: I learned enough about it to realize that I am most likely okay, in fact, fine. Usually, you go to WebMD or someplace and then sit around all day waiting for your organs to die one by one and your limbs to fall off. No, this is much, much better. Here's what I got:

1. Lots of people have fatty liver.
2. High liver enzymes can be caused by acetiminophen (Tylenol) or cholesterol-lowering medications (in my case, Pravachol, which I've been taking for over ten years).
3. A small number of people with fatty liver will develop a form of NAFLD, which is Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. A small number of these people will develop NASH, which is Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis, a form of inflammation. For some of these people, when the inflammation goes away, it will leave scar tissue.
4. A buildup of scar tissue decreases liver function. This is what cirrhosis is.

Okay. So the only thing we know I've got now for sure is increased liver enzymes. The CAT scan could well show few or no fatty deposits, and no scar tissue. My biggest problem may be finding out that in addition to aspirin, ibuprofen, and whatever Aleve is, I can't take Tylenol either, which would totally suck, but it won't kill me. And maybe have to change to Lipitor or something, or maybe not; my cholesterol's been pretty good. So that's where I stand, and I'll have whatever tests I need and see the doctor again at the end of February.

In the meantime, I moved the router in the family room, and now I can Wii to my heart's content and it doesn't interfere with the Hubs' Internet. I had an excellent workout last night, 32 minutes and it burned about 150 calories, which I think is pretty good. And that's only with maybe ten minutes of aerobics. I need to do lots more of that, but I have some hearing issues with the free step program. That's the one that let's you just watch TV while you step, with a beat from the Wii remote to guide your pace. But I can't always hear the beat, so I need to work on that.

No news yet on getting my desk moved, but the new librarian is going to come in next Wednesday morning for a little bit of an orientation with me. The SCM will be out that day. His last day is next Friday, one week from today.

Home, evening. I may not do the Wii after all, but I did walk a vigorous lap around the building this morning -- inside -- so I did get some aerobics in, and I even got a chance to ask a phys. ed. teacher more about using the heart monitor thingy. So now I just need to collapse, although if I can still move in an hour or so, maybe then ...



WATCHING FRIENDS :: ENTRY #1971
READING: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke