My illness hit very suddenly and it started in a very strange way. It started on a Saturday afternoon when I began to feel very hot. That night I was sweating and the next morning I felt very hot. During the following night I began to go to the bathroom almost every hour or at least that is what it felt like to me. By the end of the next day I was wondering where all the fluid etc had come from. I spent most of that Monday in bed because I simply did not feel well. On Wednesday morning we had to sign some documents and Wednesday evening we had dinner with friends… and I was still not feeling well but managed.
What I did not understand at the time was that my urine looked very dark and that this was not caused by dehydration like i had thought. I was in fact quite concerned about the colour because it was very odd. it took until Friday before I made a doctor appointment. The first thing I was told was that since I have been taking methotrexate I should have made an appointment earlier in the week and that he would have fitted me in (he is booked up with appointments). He ordered blood and urine tests and the results were faxed to him the same day. I got a call around 5 p.m. from my G.P. telling me that my blood test results were abnormal. He told me to go off my medication and he also informed my rheumatologist about the test results. I was told that if I felt really unwell that I should go to the hospital emergency.
This lady does not always follow through with good advice because of a determination to keep other promises. On the Saturday morning even though I felt unwell, I took an old lady to Church for the Healing Mass. Then on the Sunday morning, when I woke up I vomited, but managed to go to Mass and to read since it was my rostered turn. Then I went home to bed for a few short hours, followed by going to an 80th birthday party. I came home from the birthday party and went back to bed for a while. Yes, I was feeling very unwell.
On the Monday morning my determination meant that I was going to keep my doctor appointment. The doctor had intended ordering another blood test and and an ultrasound. I groaned at the thought because I knew that I had gallstones and a fatty liver plus fatty pancreas. My doctor was going to write out the request and then changed his mind. Instead he printed up a letter to take to the local hospital with my details and then I was sent to the emergency department.
After several hours of waiting I was seen by an intern doctor. It took several more hours before I was admitted. By 6 p.m. i had not eaten any lunch or dinner and had nothing to drink for several hours. Finally I was given something but I could not eat the sandwich that was proffered because it contained tomato. I was given something else that was unpalatable and quite rubbery. It was an omelette, I had a very little bit and decided that the mashed potato was a better option. Then I was admitted to the hospital. The diagnosis at that stage was obstructive jaundice with possible cholangitis. Overnight I was placed on a drip and the next morning I had the ultrasound. My gallbladder is full of gallstones but some stones are very big.
For the remainder of the week I was on a drip and antibiotics to kill the infection that was present in the gallbladder. I was not taken for a surgical procedure called an ERCP until the Thursday but that failed because I apparently gagged under the light anaesthetic. I am surprised about that information. The surgeon then consulted with another surgeon at a bigger hospital. He took on my case so that the same procedure could be performed under general anaesthetic. He put in a stent which opened up the common hepatic bile duct. He then ordered some further tests. The results of the tests have left me feeling a bit baffled.
My blood test results had come back positive for some cancer cells specific to the liver and the common hepatic duct. The issue is that rather than having a stone blocking the bile duct I have what is called a stricture that was causing the blockage. The doctor suspected that I have a small tumor. He has passed my case on to another surgeon at a different hospital because it seems that I need a major operation. The status is that I now need an MRI and then another appointment with this surgeon and then he will make up his mind as to the type of operation that is required.
At least the stent means that I am not looking so yellow any more. People were wanting to say that I looked like the Simpsons but someone else mentioned the Oompa Loompas from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate factory. I preferred being called an Oompah Loompah. It is not a look that I recommend because my belly was very itchy during the whole of this crisis.
There are lessons to be learned in regard to my story. The first is to go to the doctor when feeling unwell because it might not be a cold, but an infection caused by something very serious. The second is that being on something like methotrexate means that if one has a cold then action needs to be taken before things get out of hand. The third lesson here is to forget those obligations and go with the gut feeling. The fourth lesson is go to the hospital with someone else rather than by yourself in your care – because someone will need to come and pick it up!! The fifth lesson is to be healthy rather than letting stones in the gallbladder get out of control.
