The Beginning Part 2

The next several hours become a blur. I’m falling in and out of sleep, only to wake up to get more medication and blood drawn. I stay in South Bend until a bed was available for me in Indy. Here we go again another ambulance ride to Indy. This time was different, I wasn’t a kid and I didn’t have the comfort of familiarity around me. When I was taken to Indy in high school I was still 16 years old so I went to Riley. Riley is a place that I looked at as my second home. I promise it's not weird, it was somewhere I was comfortable and I knew my doctors loved me like their own. It was a place where I could be me, I felt understood and cared for. Growing up around hospitals maybe sounds bad but maybe I just chose to focus on the positives there than the negatives. Either way, I remember telling my family I could ride in the ambulance by myself and they could meet in Indy in the morning. I was 16 and I wasn’t scared, I was at peace. This time around I’m 24 doing the same thing but instead telling my husband to follow the ambulance down because on the inside I was panicking. I never stayed at the “adult” hospital before and I don’t have doctors who make me feel like family. I didn’t know what to expect when I got there. All I knew is that I didn’t want to be alone. Keep in mind when this transfer happened it was November 5th, I checked into the ER November 3rd. I waited almost 2 whole days for that room because Paul and I didn’t get to Indy until early morning. November 6th, it’s my dads birthday, my family had tickets to go to an NFL game which we had gotten the tickets for my oldest sister’s birthday months earlier. I forced my dad and sisters to go to the game without me, no sense in missing the game because of me. This same day I met with one of the doctors and finally things start rolling. All my ER visits made my doctors concerned, so in September they ordered me to get an MRI done but I never got the results back. Little did I know the results of that MRI showed that my bile duct was becoming very small. Imagine looking down a straw, the smaller it is in diameter the less fluid can go through at a time. The job of a bile duct is very important it carry’s bile (a fluid that helps breakdown fat for you to digest your food). With the duct closing in on itself it can lead to infections such as cholangitis. I know, I’m saying that word a lot and it probably means nothing to you but here is what it is. Cholangitis is a bacterial infection and it occurs if there is a block in the bile duct, if left untreated it can cause sepsis. Now be aware I already have cirrhosis of the liver and an enlarged spleen, all because of my pediatric liver disease. While I'm in the hospital, I get treated for this cholangitis and get sent home with oral medications and I’m feeling better in 2 weeks, which leads us to November 17th. November 17th is the day we found out the best option for me is to get a transplant. Paul and I went to Indy for an exploratory procedure in order to try and extend the life of my native liver. Once the doctor went in to insert what is like a stent but is used to expand the bile duct and help prevent a blockage. When the doctor went in he tried 6 different angles and not a single one could he get through. I remember him showing me the pictures of what his viewpoint looked like once I woke up from the anesthesia. The images he showed us looked like Spider-Man shot a bunch of webs at the computer screen. My scar tissue has built up so much over the years he didn’t have any way to see where he was going. So here we are, present day sitting and waiting for the call to get me back to a normal life.