I love my liver

One of the many complications I've learned regarding this disorder is that is can cause your liver to swell, develop cirrhosis and possibly cancer. Yay. There is a liver ultrasound in my very near future, as recommended by my doctor and I'm more than likely just fine.

But here's a little catch. Since I was about fifteen, I've had a mysterious recurring abdominal pain. It's always in the same place and it's always brutally painful. I go to an emergency room every time it occurs as it's usually accompanied by cold sweats, lightheadedness and nausea...in other words 'shock'. It happens to me about every 2 years and there are sometimes 'twinges' in between the events. They normally last about 3-8 hours though on one or two occasions, the pain only subsided after twelve hours.

I was fifteen the first time it happened and my family rushed me to the military hospital at the post we were stationed at. I laid down in the waiting room, curled up into a ball with searing pain so bad that I could not stand up. Indeed my father had had to practically carry me to the car. After hours, a near appendectomy, a pelvic exam and an ultrasound, the doctor raised his shoulders and said to my parents 'female problems'?

It was suggested I follow up with a battery of tests to rule out more serious issues like ulcers or cancer. I took an Upper GI test and a 'barium enema' and that was not so much fun at all. Finally, the gynecologist told my parents he thought it was possibly an ovarian cyst that hurt more than normal because as he put it, 'she doesn't have much room down there'.  He promptly subscribed birth control pills.

Over the years, despite being on 'the pill' the pains recurred. I saw a gastro doctor and he told me that he thought I had a 'colicky bowel' and that if it happened again, I should go to the emergency room which I had already been doing. A mere five years ago, in Malibu at the ER, I was given 'belladonna' to 'relax my intestines'. It didn't help.

So, now, I sit here reading about the liver complications of this disorder. And, frankly, all my episodes of 'abdominal pain' or 'colicky bowels' are textbook for liver swelling and cirrhosis. Which is a frightening thought. But at the end of the day, I don't know if those pains can be attributed to my liver. I don't even know that they mean that there's anything wrong with my liver at all.

Maybe, just maybe, my liver was just trying to warn me, like a little Paul Revere bearing a sole torch, warning of what could be coming. And I do believe Paul Revere lived to ride another day.  In fact, he even went on after the war to manufacture metal and iron bolts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere#Later_years

So I'll leave you with that little bit of 'iron-y' ;) and give you a break from my puns and metaphors...for another day at least.