Janet's Story
(by Janet)
My personal Scenario:
Within the last two months my life has went from a pleasant routine, into
total disruption. It started one morning when I awoke to a pain in my
right side. As the day progressed, the pain grew worse and spread unto my
lower abdomen. Finally when the pain grew unbearable, my husband insisted
on driving me to the emergency room. It was midnight and luckily the
emergency room wasn’t crowded.
After blood work and ultra sound, the only thing that could be determined
was that my liver enzymes were elevated. I was given a much-appreciated
pain shot with an appointment set for the next week with a surgeon. The
ultra sound had not detected any gallstones, but the physician on staff
suspected that the gallbladder might have been the problem. The pain
subsided and the doctor and I concluded that it might have been a one-time
thing.
A month passed, and I had acquired a new bookkeeping job. Within days of
going back to work, the pain began again. I was able to acquire pain
medication from family and called the doctor to set another appointment.
During this time, I wasn’t able to focus on my job for the pain and
feeling ill. However, I continued to try. My boss did not understand and
in so many words, asked me to leave.
Returning to the doctor and more testing, the gallbladder was ruled out.
However, my liver enzymes were not normalizing. The surgeon recommended a
gastroenterologist.
Unrelated to my problems, my father also was having serious surgery, and I
needed to delay any further testing for a time. The surgeon suggested that
I not delay seeing the gastroenterologist for very long.
My Father did well, and I continued on with further blood work. This time,
the blood work revealed that I was positive for Hepatitis C. The doctor
had to do further testing to see if the virus was chronic. When I asked
him when I would know, he stated that I would be the second to know, with
him being the first. This was said in a stern matter of fact tone and
something I didn’t need.
My husband is bi-bolar and is also having problem with acid reflux. He had
a manic episode, during this time, compounding everything. He is about to
lose his job from missing so much work and with it our insurance.
This letter is for our doctors. You are our health source. We depend on
you for information and understanding, along with the your medical
knowledge. Please try to understand that we have lives that are on hold
and disrupted. Decisions and arrangements of one’s life are made, by
test results and answers. Try not to be callous when we seem impatient. We
understand that testing and results take time; we just need to have some
idea as to their expedition.
The opinions expressed on
this page are solely those of the author and none of the information included is to be
misconstrued as medical advise.
Any
issues concerning this website should be addressed to:
Be sure to
include the words "HEP C" in the subject line of your
correspondence. Otherwise, it may be deleted unopened
due to the extreme problem with spam.
Last Updated
March 31, 2008
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