Scott’s Trip to the Hospital

 

As December progressed, Scott became more and more sick.  He was loosing weight rapidly (10lbs in 2 weeks!), was tired all the time, was turning yellow, had pains in his side, had little to no appetite as well as lot of other unpleasant symptoms which don’t need to be discussed.  He had been going to the doctor to try and find out what was wrong.  They kept ordering more and more blood work and sent him to a Gastroenterologist.  His blood work came back with all kinds of crazy numbers off the charts but no one could give us a very clear idea of what was wrong with him.    They thought it might be his gallbladder and that he would need to have that removed but then they decided it was something with his liver.  All of it was very vague and was taking too long to find answers.  Meanwhile Scott was barely functioning.  He went to work and came home and basically passed out for the rest of the evening. 

When the gastroenterologist said “you don’t look that yellow to me,” and ordered MORE blood work we decided that enough was enough and so we “scheduled” a time to go to the hospital.  We went into the emergency room after work the Friday after Christmas.  Initially, they told us they were going to remove his gallbladder but then a different gastroenterologist said that he was fairly certain that Scott has something called Autoimmune Hepatitis.  What a blessing to finally find a doctor who knew what was causing Scott’s health problems.

Autoimmune Hepatitis is not a form of Hepatitis at all.  It is a genetic autoimmune disease and not contagious.  The body attacks liver cells and causes Hepatitis-like symptoms.  It doesn’t come as a surprise that he has this disorder as his younger sister has suffered from it since she was 15 years old.  Also, Scott’s grandmother most likely had it as she died from “yellow jaundice,” at the age of 35.  What is unusual is that Scott exhibited symptoms of it while only 10% of male carriers actually have symptoms of the disorder. 

The doctor prescribed a steroid called Prednisone and Scott’s health dramatically improved almost over night.  His energy and appetite bounced back and he stopped feeling sick.  I felt like I had a new husband – I don’t remember the last time I saw him with this much energy.  It was such a relief to finally have Scott on the mend.  They did do a liver biopsy a week or two after he went to the hospital.  That was a fun little adventure for Scott who had never been under sedation before but he did really well.  The results were a bit confusing but after some more tests, blood work, and fiddling with medications, the doctor is convinced that the diagnosis is still Autoimmune Hepatitis.  He has to be on two drugs interminably that will suppress the disorder and hopefully it will stay in remission for the rest of his life.  We are so glad to have Scott back to “better than normal.”

 

This was when Scott was in triage before they admitted him to the hospital.

 

This is the last day were were in the hospital…you can see how yellow his skin and especially his eyes are in this picture.  He was in the hospital for two nights…I slept on the couch/bed one of the nights…horrible at 7 months pregnant.  I discovered that I would much rather be the one in the hospital bed because it is so distressing to see a loved one, especially my husband, in the hospital!  I hope we never do this again!