In My Shoes: This Week

Sunday, July 27, 2008

This Week

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This week is really going to be a hard one with all the tests going on. Last night I really broke down and had my melt down. It's just times like these were I can only take so much and the thing that I really hate the most about dealing with all this is waiting. I hate waiting and not knowing what's going to happen especially when so much is a stake. This really has become more than just a roller coaster. I feel like as if I'm standing on top of a skyscraper and I've been pushed over the edge; falling with no kind of safety attachments and I have to wait to see if someone is there to catch me before it's too late. I just feel alone sometimes because in the end no one has to physically go through this stuff but me and when the doctors drop these things on you they make it sound like it's no big deal, like as if you're just going in for a filling. But I must say this is when I really need all the support and love that I can get and I really appreciate all of your guys support. Honestly I sometimes don't know how I even do it. I was talking to my mom though, and if they do have to take out my right lung and still have to do a transplant all I can say is good luck finding a place to cut to do the tx because soon I'm look like a walking map with all these scars.

Fiona

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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.