Friday, April 08, 2011

Friday afternoon

Well. I thought I had it all together and headed off for my doctor appointment. I was fine and got called in. I went because one of my diuretics was going to run out over the weekend and I needed to go. So I asked about going back to Vancouver to see the Dr. there and he said really right now there is no point.

My doctor there is all about the drug trials or when you get to the transplant stage. The last discussion was that I should have regular endoscopy's and try and maintain for 5 years till the next wave of drugs come along. I am pretty sure he isn't thinking about the protease inhibitors because I had already tried the Vertex drug in the trial. So he wants me to keep seeing the fellow that did the endoscopy as he is a gastro guy.

At that point I burst into tears. I have nothing at all against this gastro fellow and I have no idea why I burst into tears like that. I just can't seem to control it right now if anything at all goes not the way I expect it to I cry, but of course this was the correct place to do it. After a chit chat and him refilling all my prescriptions he took me to another spot and had me fill out the depression test sheet and of course I am depressed. Really at this point why wouldn't I be lol. Oh lord, anyway I am now on Citalpram and I started taking them today. The pharmacist said it will take a few weeks before they kick in and it will probably cause nausea (lol of course it will!!) but she swears this will go away in a couple of weeks. So hopefully I can get this all under control again. As for the rest of my pills I am to just keep on and hopefully I will maintain.

1 comment:

Fiona said...

Hi Anne

I hope the Ads are not making you sicky at the moment.
I'm in the same quandary as you - who do i want and trust to treat me.
I've just been referred to a heppy doctor at big city hospital for the first time since diagnosis with cirrhosis 9 months ago, and immediately he and the gastro guy at small local hospital disagree on diagnosis and treatment.
I think you need to ask, what apart from regular endoscopies, will the gastro guy do for you?
The endoscopy will lessen the risk of bleeding as it will monitor your varices. And it will also give guidance to portal hypertension.
But what other aspects of your liver disease will gastro guy monitor?
Will he do bloods every 3 or 6 months to monitor your LFTs? (You need the albumin and bilrubin levels for your Child Pugh grade).
Will he ultrasound you for ascites, portal hypertension and checking your spleen size.
Will he take AFP levels at least 6 monthly to rule out HCC.
Will he advise you on transplant.

If not, will the Vancouver hospital do all this? Without putting you on a clinical trial?
Established cirrhosis limits the choice of HCV treatment I think, am I right?

My view would be forget about whether or not there is an appropriate trial coming up. Who of the 2 specialists is the best person to be looking after your health as it is NOW.

Feel free to disagree as I have no idea what to do about my own situation anyway!!!