What the hospital?!
Yep, that's right. I landed up in the hospital on Thursday with as my doctor put it, "extremely high liver enzyme levels". Yikes!
Let me back up a bit. For a couple of weeks my urine was getting darker. I felt ok but on Tuesday I thought I'd better make an appointment to see my doctor. They said they could fit me in on Friday at 3:15.
On Wednesday I started feeling weak, tired and I was itching all over. I was feeling nauseous after I ate. So I called back to my doctors office and the receptionist said to come in tomorrow morning (Thursday).
Doctor sent me next door for some bloodwork. It said "STAT" on the order and I've watched enough tv shows to know what that meant π.
I get home and about 15 minutes later I get a call from the doctors office saying my liver enzyme levels are extremely high and he wants me to pack a bag to go to the hospital. The receptionist said she will call me as soon as they have a room. I'm like !?!?!
It wasn't 5 minutes later she called for me to head over there. Here I am in the waiting room getting ready to be admitted.
So, they get me admitted and into a gown. Let me tell you, I wasn't as nervous as I probably should have been with my condition..I was freaked out because of COVID!! I mean really! I'm in a freaking hospital!! So I kept my mask on as much as possible. Every hospital staff member who came in would say "oh, you don't have to wear your mask in your room", and I of course wanted to know if they were vaccinated or not. Ugh!! I didn't know if I was being rude when I asked but they kept saying it's ok to not wear your mask. Ugh!!
The attending doctor came in and said I had acute liver damage. Not sure why or how I got it. So he ordered a CT scan on my abdomen. IV was in a weird place on my forearm and hurt so bad every time they injected something into it (I'm such a pansy!!). Notice my own pillow in the picture above? If nothing else I was going to try to get some sleep.
About a month ago, I had a horrible UTI and went to the urgent care down the street. The girl put me on Cipro, twice a day for 5 days. Then about a week after that I came down with a sinus infection that made my sinuses feel like they were filled with cement. The doctor put me on Amox/Clav Augmentin for 10 days.
They asked in the hospital, when I had eaten last. That was around 11:00 am. They figured they could do the CT scan 8-10 hours after. I couldn't eat anything all day and then around 6:30 they came in and had me drink the contrast dye stuff. Then did the scan at 8:30 pm. I finally got back to my room and got to eat a sandwich etc. around 9:30-10. So my pillow was for naught since eating that late kept me up with indigestion and bad thoughts about the results of my scan π¬.
So the next day, Friday, they weren't completely convinced the CT scan was showing everything they wanted so they ordered an MRI and more blood work. After getting the results of the MRI they at least said they could rule out the big "C" and nasty stuff like cirrhosis of the liver. That was huge relief. We waited for the bloodwork to come back. Later in the day it did and they said my numbers were coming down and I could go home. They said absolutely no Tylenol or acetaminophen as that is processed through my liver. They said to take Ibuprofen if I needed a painkiller. Hmmm, good to know.
So, home I am. I'm still yellow, tired, nauseous after I eat and my urine is still dark but I called the doctor this morning and he said to get more bloodwork done on Wednesday and we'll go from there.
The doctors now believe my liver has suffered because of either the antibiotics or some kind of virus. Could be Hepatitis A from eating contaminated food or water and thank goodness no long term affects. They are leaning towards the antibiotics as the cause.
So, please keep me in your thoughts and wish me luck.
As always...thanks for stopping by.