In My Shoes: GRR!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

GRR!

I can't tell you how frustrated I get when I'm sick and I go to the doctor's or the hospital and the only answer that I come out with is "well, I don't what's causing your problems." Sometimes I give up before I even get started just because I'm 99.9% certain what the outcome will be. Just for once I would like to live a somewhat normal life and I know that it's not going to get any better for awhile but it bothers me that I feel sick. I try really hard to do stuff to take my mind off being sick but then again when I feel like this I don't want to do anything just because I feel so crappy. And all of this having to to go through this disease and the process of liver failure it's scary and I can't help but have these feelings. I try hard to keep my chin up and most of the time and I feel like I do but there are those times where you're scared out of my pants and feel alone. I'm also trying to just pick up where I've left off before this last lung bleed and continue on with my life. I'm going to try and get back into school and try to finish my degree I won't be able to go back to the same school that I was attending before just because healthwise I can't afford to make that kind of commute and then have something happen. So I'm trying to see about going to a community college close to home, but then I'm getting frustrated there because the faculty at the school is giving me the run around. All I can say is GRRRRRRRR! I need help in make it through and at the same time I hate asking for it and I hate having to rely on others to help me.

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Biliary Atresia

Biliary atresia is a condition in which the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the gallbladder and small intestine are not normal. These ducts can be injured, blocked, or missing. When the ducts that carry bile out of the liver are closed, bile backs up and damages liver tissue. In time the liver can develop scarring or cirrhosis. The gallbladder may also be abnormal or missing. The cause of Biliary Atresia is unknown. It occurs in one infant in every 15,000 live births. It is a serious disease which requires immediate surgical and medical treatment.

Arteriovenous Malformations AVMS

I have been diagnosed with AVMS in my lungs do to my liver disease. These have caused me to have 2 lung bleeds which were very scary. I still have more AVMS and they are causing me breathing problems. Below is an explanation of what the AVMs are and a picture of what is happening in my lungs.

Arteries and veins are part of the human cardiovascular system. Normally, the arteries in the vascular system carry oxygen-rich blood at a relatively high pressure. Structurally, arteries divide and sub-divide repeatedly, eventually forming a sponge-like capillary bed. Blood moves through the capillaries, giving up oxygen and taking up waste products from the surrounding cells. Capillaries successively join together, one upon the other, to form the veins that carry blood away at a relatively low pressure. The heart acts to pump blood from the low pressure veins to the high pressure arteries.
If the capillary bed is thought of as a sponge, then an AVM is the rough equivalent of jamming a tangle of flexible soda straws from artery to vein through that sponge. On arteriogram films AVM formation often resemble a tangle of spaghetti noodles. This tangle of blood vessels forms a relatively direct connection between high pressure arteries and low pressure veins.
The result is a collection of blood vessels with abnormal connections and no capillaries. This collection, often called a nidus, can be extremely fragile and prone to bleeding.