Wow your spleen is huge!

That's what Dr. Hudson said at my appointment on Wednesday.

A normal spleen is only supposed to be 3-5 cm and mine is 17 cm.

I know gross!

If only my body would function normally and grow a accessory liver instead of an accessory spleen. The good news is that the spleen hasn't gotten bigger in the last 6 months.

The ultrasound tech said there wasn't any water in my abdomen but by the time it was over there was 3 technicians in there doing it. They couldn't get a great view of my portal vein. Finally got one but my ribs were red and sore because of it.

My blood test results came back great too! My bilirubin which measures my jaundice level was .8 and my tumor marker was negative. The only count down was my platelets but only slightly. I have been having nausea after meals. It doesn't really matter what it is i have eaten so its not really food related. Dr. Hudson will do yet another EGD to check for a ulcer or a blockage somewhere but I doubt its either one.

My MELD score they use to determine where you are on the transplant list is a 7 now. Six months ago it was a 9. You would think that would be good but its not really. I have to be a 15 to be listed at all and approximately a 24 to be transplanted. We asked with the spleen enlarging so much what that meant with time until transplant was needed. Answer: 2-5 years. At the beginning my spleen wasn't big at all so the time frame was about 9 years. So that was kinda scary to me and Jeremy. That's not much time and I sure don't like the thought of having such a HUGE operation.....if I can get a liver when I need one.

I would be more than happy to just continue seeing the specialist every 6 months and go about my business. It is nice to have advanced warning and be able to plan for certain things like insurance and coverage stuff.

The funny thing is the doctor pretty much said all the same things last time(minus the 2-5 yrs) and I feel so much better about this visit than the last one. Don't know why, maybe being more up to date on the time frame.

Jeremy and I both agree we have the best specialist there is on the subject of liver transplant. Dr. Hudson is very knowledgeable, down to earth, and kind. But more than that he is not a beat around the bush kinda doctor. He tells us straight up every time whats happening and that means so much to both of us.

So I will continue my course of going about my life trying my hardest to lose the weight I need to, being with my family that I love and making the most out of life while I still feel great.

I guess a lot of cirrhosis patients don't have a lot of energy and feel pretty crappy.

I on the other had ran on the treadmill at the gym today!

THRILLER!!!!

Owens cut on his head is just a tattoo
he just wanted to be like frankie

Well we have been waiting all year for October to come so we could take Owen to THRILLER!


It is a awesome Halloween based dance production by Odyssey Dance Company. There is a sweet mummy that does a dance with some beautiful Egyptian girls to the beginning song on my blog page. It is one of our traditions we love, it totally gets us into the Halloween spirit. I know your thinking how can that be possible?!!


This year it was down in Provo in addition to up in slc so we didn't have to use up more gas to get there. The only downer was that half way through the show right after the intermission there was a dance with witches and lots of pyrotechnics well it was too much for the smoke detectors and the alarm went off, we all had to file out and stand in the cold for about 30 minutes. Which wouldn't have really bothered me but it was an especially cold night and it was starting to snow! Poor Owen was freezing! We ended up in the car for a while and the fireman came and actually stayed for the rest of the show! As we were leaving one of the fireman reached out to feel O's head to see if his tattoo was real and asked him if his head hurt. Guess it does look pretty real and we have had a bonk on the head before that needed glue.

This weekend we also went to the Body Exhibit in SLC with our friends the Brimhalls. It was just as good as the one I saw in Vegas but way more crowded and so so so HOT!

The thing I am not excited about is that it's time for me to go see the Transplant docs up at U of U. Every time it comes around I get panicked about all that they could say and what they could find on the ultrasound and blood work. I try most of the time to have a good attitude and outlook on the situation but every six months I get to face the severity of what could go wrong and what has happened to my body in the six months since the last time. The doctor is super nice and totally down to earth able to ask him anything but just thinking about sitting in that little room waiting for him to tell me its still the same or gotten worse is making me sick right now. Good thing I got some xanax to take this time. Ive never taken it before and I only plan to take it at these appointments, although I don't have a high tolerance for meds so it would be really sad if it made me super sleepy or something.