In My Shoes: Let's Keep Our Fingers Crossed!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Let's Keep Our Fingers Crossed!

Well it's 9:37pm and I took the very first pill of my study drug at 9:24pm. So we shall see if I get any side effects. Hopefully I'm getting the real drug though. But besides that the appointment today at Cedars for this study drug went fine. I had my eyes checked before and they put these drops in my eyes to dilate them and that felt really weird. But other than that same old same old. Oh and I just want to say that my heart really goes out to Aiden and his family and I hope all goes well.
~Fiona

1 comment:

Lisa and Aiden said...: We are praying for you Fi. Thanks for the shout out. It really stinks our families are so far away. Imagine what the doctors would think if they had both of us as patients?

I am hoping you didn't get the placebo and that we see a great improvement in your platelets. Hang in there. HUGS; April 2, 2009 at 9:32 AM

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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.