Sir Oliver

Oh Sir Oliver, why do you like so much drama? We had clinic this past Thursday. An interminably long clinic appointment. We were in a room waiting for our appointment at 9:05 am (admittedly we were 5 minutes late). The nurse did not make her appearance until nearly 10:40, at which time she told me that the doctor had just come up on the floor. It's always so great to know that scheduling an appointment means nothing at all.

Anyway, all of Jaisal's liver labs are up quite a bit from his last set of labs. Jaisal was fighting a cold that day which can cause a bump in labs, but we're not thrilled that the last 3 weeks have seen a continual increase in his numbers.

Of course no one had any real ideas as to what is going on with Jaisal. Therefore the plan is to do nothing.  No labs for 3 weeks and no clinic for a month. If the labs in 3 weeks show continued increases in his numbers or even no decrease, then we'll schedule an ultrasound for the same day as the clinic appointment. Depending on what all that shows, the next step would be another biopsy.

I'm just hoping that the next time we get labs Jaisal isn't sick so we can get "real" numbers. Although no sickness does not appear to be in the cards for us. It seems as though one of the three of us is always sick. Besides Jaisal's lingering cold, I've spent the past week in itching misery.

On our drive home from Ohio, I noticed that I had a rash with a few small bumps on my forearms. I assumed it was an allergic reaction to having been in the grass all weekend. Well over the next few days the bumps and the itching continued to spread over both of my arms. By Thursday it had spread to my legs, and I was growing concerned. When I woke up on Friday, my whole body was covered. I freaked out. I was really nervous that somehow I had chicken pox (even though I'd had them as a kid) or that I had something else infectious and contagious going on.

All I could think about was that I was going to be the cause of Jaisal having to get more labs or ending up in the hospital if it somehow was chicken pox. This train of thought pretty much put me in a super panicked state and as soon as dermatologists' offices opened Friday morning, I was calling to see if there was any way someone could squeeze me in. I was fully using the sob story of my son being immune suppressed and my being afraid I had something contagious to try to get an appointment. Luckily one receptionist took pity on me, talked to her doctor, and got approval to squeeze me in for an appointment during the doctor's lunch hour. Thank you Nima Skin Institute and Dr. Amin, you are my new hero!

Well it turns out that I have a viral infection. Likely the same one that caused Kirk and Jaisal's cold over the past week. But, my body's immune response was to have my whole body break out in itchy bumps. The doctor said the most likely reason for my full body response was stress. Fun times, since it's unlikely that my stress level will decrease any time soon. Besides giving me a prescription to deal with the itching, her recommendation was that I try to sleep more and reduce my stress levels. Ha ha, yup, I'll get right on that doc. :)

The news that I am not contagious, that I won't infect Jaisal, and that I won't land him in the hospital did reduce my stress levels pretty significantly, so maybe there is hope that this is a one time occurrence.

Here's hoping for a healthy few weeks for all of us and better news the next time Jaisal has to get labs.