Thursday, October 18, 2012

Why is nothing easy?  All I want is some normality back in my life.  I guess I gave that up 2.5 years ago when this all started.

No chemo yesterday.  It seems my bilirubin levels were up and I didn't have the energy to argue.  If you remember from my post last month I had the same problem.  For those not familiar with what bilirubin is here is some info:

Bilirubin (formerly referred to as hematoidin) is the yellow breakdown product of normal heme catabolism. Heme is found in hemoglobin, a principal component of red blood cells. Bilirubin is excreted in bile and urine, and elevated levels may indicate certain diseases. It is responsible for the yellow color of bruises, the yellow color of urine (via its reduced breakdown product, urobilin), the brown color of feces (via its conversion to stercobilin), and the yellow discoloration in jaundice.

In a nut shell high bilirubin can be an indication of liver damage.

The doctor called me this morning to see how I was ( I think she was more interested in how I was doing mentally rather then physically since she knows I hate changes in my schedule).  Although she said I just may have a higher level then most, she still needs to be safe and have it checked out.  I have an appointment Tuesday with a Liver Specialist to get a second opinion. 

I did share my thoughts on it and thankfully she is open minded and listened to what I had to say.  Three weeks ago when my level showed high I did a little research on how to reduce the levels.  Basically lots of fruits and veggies, orange juice, low fat meats and no fired or spicy foods.  Very similar to a diet you would see for gallbladder problems which makes sense since the liver and gallbladder work together.  In less then one week of sticking to this diet my level went from 2.3 to 1.8.   The second week it went down to 1.7.  The third week I got lazy and didn't follow it like I should have and it shot up to 2.4.   I have a blood test scheduled for Monday.  I plan on sticking to this regiment and hopefully it will show a reduction.  My doctor was very open minded to the idea so we'll see what happens next week.

A bit of good news is that the CT scan I had on Tuesday showed stable - no change.

Until I have more to share I remain strong, positive and ready to fight.

Keep on Dancin'