Health Update - Living with PBC

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

As part of my blog, I share ongoing updates with family and friends about my health status.  If you are new to the site, I was recently diagnosed with primary biliary cirrhosis - an autoimmune disease affecting the liver.  I have a number of pages explaining what the disease is and the consequences of it.  You can find out more information by clicking on either the Health link or PBC link under the categories column on the right hand side of the page.  If you also suffer from primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), I'd love to hear from you.  You can contact me via email, connect with me on Facebook, or leave your comments below.  All comments are moderated so they will not appear right away, but only once I approve them.

Now for how I'm doing health-wise; I think, at least right now, the worst thing about having PBC is the fatigue. Some days I feel pretty good with no fatigue at all.  Other days the fatigue is relatively minor.  Then there are days when the fatigue is absolutely debilitating.   I've discovered if I push myself too hard on days where I feel good, I pay for it several days after the fact, with body aches and severe exhaustion.  Of course, not pushing my limits is against my very nature - I'm stubborn, always have been, always will be.  Right now I am trying to find a healthy balance and one can live with -I want to be able to do as much as I like doing while keeping my levels of exhaustion to a minimum.

I return to the liver specialist in the middle of next week.  I will have to get more blood work done a few days before (and can I tell you I'm beginning to feel like a pin cushion already).  I've been religious about taking the Ursodiol as prescribed, missing the medication only twice due to illness.  I'm hoping the doctor will have some advice about how to handle the fatigue I'm dealing with.  I will soon be participating in a sleep study as well, to see if I have sleep apnea.  If I do, a machine might help in reducing some of the tiredness I feel.

As many of my friends and family members know, I was admitted into the hospital on August 1 for my eighth bout of cellulitis.  This time, I had it on the left side of my face.  I had a CAT Scan of my head done to see if there was any infection, and if so, where.  Incidentally, the CAT Scan revealed a dime sized growth on the left side of my thyroid.  So, now I'm under watch by an endocrinologist.  If there is any change in the growth, I'll require a biopsy.  Of course, the results of the biopsy determines the next step from there.  So that's where I stand presently - I'll be adding future updates as I get them.