The Thing That I Wanted To Talk About But Didn't.

At the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden with my mom and Raine last May.

No posts for a while, huh.

In the middle of August, my mom told me that during her regular check up with her physician, she had complained about some bloating and pain so he had her see a specialist. The specialist did a CT scan and found portal hypertension. Because ascites (the fluid retention) and portal hypertension are often indicative of liver cirrhosis, he ordered a doppler ultrasound to check her liver. While my mother has never been a drinker, nor had any liver disease in her family, she is prone to autoimmune disorders and he suspected autoimmune hepatitis-induced-cirrhosis. I was on pins and needles as I googled the crap out of it, and I was convinced, like her doctor, that she was dealing with late stage cirrhosis. 

However her biopsy showed a healthy liver. 

So we don't know what is happening. She has two more tests to check her heart and kidneys, and if those are OK, she will have to go to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

In the meantime, it has been a little bit of a roller coaster. The diagnosis of cirrhosis was given twice and revoked twice. She is suffering discomfort and pain related to the ascites but she is unable to have the fluid drained often because of the risk of infection. They literally have to make her wait until it is unbearable. Her first drain (a procedure called "paracentesis") removed several liters of fluid (20 lbs!) and it fills up again so quickly. She had another paracentesis two weeks after the first one and we think she is due for another one soon. The fluid accumulation is so uncomfortable that she always experiences pain and pressure and therefore ended up hospitalized because of a bladder infection that she didn't know she had.

Today she went into the hospital again. They are going to do tests and monitor her. Probably just a day or two.

All the while. Here I am in Oregon. 2,000 miles away.

And that's that.