Liv-ing It Up. So I had a pretty big scare recently revolving around my liver.
I'm taking medication for my high blood pressure, and as a general precaution, you have to get a blood test every year to make sure the meds aren't messing up your kidney. And while they were at it, they run it through the usual gauntlet of tests to make sure nothing else was wrong.
So anyways, I went and got my blood drawn like the Monday or Tuesday after a weekend of hard drinking & partying for my boss's (boss's boss's) going-away party. And a couple days later, I get a call from my doctor, saying they found signs consistent with inflammation of the liver. And she danced around the issue, saying it could be caused by a number of things. But in my mind, I was freaking OUT cuz from my rudimentary knowledge of medical terminology, I know that if you translate "inflammation of the liver" into Latin, it's "hepatitis!" And I started to get real scared, cuz if it WAS hepatitis, then I wouldn't be able to drink... for the rest of my LIFE! (Or at least that's what my friends with hepatitis have told me: "It could kill me!")
Anyways, so the doctor told me to go in for a follow-up test, and not to drink for like a week beforehand. And this was actually an issue, cuz we've been having a lot of going-away parties for departing co-workers. So I had to attend two of these parties stone-cold sober, and lemme tell ya: it is AWKWARD for me to make small talk when I'm sober. >_< And I had to be all like "sorry, I can't drink- doctor's orders... LITERALLY!" at least 10 times.
But yea, so I went in for the follow-up, and the doctor gave me a bit of background. So my liver enzymes in my recent test had doubled since my blood test a year ago. If it spikes up like 10x, then they know it's probably like a temporary liver virus or something that's curable. But if it just goes up a little like mine did, then there's the possibility that it's hepatitis B or C(?). BUT there was also the possibility that it had spiked due to drinking [a stupefying amount] of alcohol (I don't recall the exact phrase she used, but I remember it woulda been hilarious if I weren't so scared). Anyways, so I was just praying that it was only lingering aftereffects of over-boozing the weekend before. They drew my blood again after I had been "clean" for ~a week and a half, and I had to wait a grueling half week before they called back, and...
MY LIVER IS FINE! I was so relieved. It was the best news I've gotten in months. And to celebrate, I punished that liver and made it work for its time off at another co-worker's going-away that night, heheh.
But yea, I'm still wondering about what the heck went wrong at the boss's going-away. Like, me & (my Russian co-worker) Sergei were both completely plastered out of our minds, even though we both pride ourselves on being able to hold our fair share of liquour. We're convinced we got roofied, or at least "slipped a mickey" or something. We were so gone that we both lost our phones that night. I ended up finding mine; he had to get a new one. And anyways, whatever it was, it was strong enough to stay in my system for like 3 or 4 days and still show up in the blood test- that's pretty wild.
I'm taking medication for my high blood pressure, and as a general precaution, you have to get a blood test every year to make sure the meds aren't messing up your kidney. And while they were at it, they run it through the usual gauntlet of tests to make sure nothing else was wrong.
So anyways, I went and got my blood drawn like the Monday or Tuesday after a weekend of hard drinking & partying for my boss's (boss's boss's) going-away party. And a couple days later, I get a call from my doctor, saying they found signs consistent with inflammation of the liver. And she danced around the issue, saying it could be caused by a number of things. But in my mind, I was freaking OUT cuz from my rudimentary knowledge of medical terminology, I know that if you translate "inflammation of the liver" into Latin, it's "hepatitis!" And I started to get real scared, cuz if it WAS hepatitis, then I wouldn't be able to drink... for the rest of my LIFE! (Or at least that's what my friends with hepatitis have told me: "It could kill me!")
Anyways, so the doctor told me to go in for a follow-up test, and not to drink for like a week beforehand. And this was actually an issue, cuz we've been having a lot of going-away parties for departing co-workers. So I had to attend two of these parties stone-cold sober, and lemme tell ya: it is AWKWARD for me to make small talk when I'm sober. >_< And I had to be all like "sorry, I can't drink- doctor's orders... LITERALLY!" at least 10 times.
But yea, so I went in for the follow-up, and the doctor gave me a bit of background. So my liver enzymes in my recent test had doubled since my blood test a year ago. If it spikes up like 10x, then they know it's probably like a temporary liver virus or something that's curable. But if it just goes up a little like mine did, then there's the possibility that it's hepatitis B or C(?). BUT there was also the possibility that it had spiked due to drinking [a stupefying amount] of alcohol (I don't recall the exact phrase she used, but I remember it woulda been hilarious if I weren't so scared). Anyways, so I was just praying that it was only lingering aftereffects of over-boozing the weekend before. They drew my blood again after I had been "clean" for ~a week and a half, and I had to wait a grueling half week before they called back, and...
MY LIVER IS FINE! I was so relieved. It was the best news I've gotten in months. And to celebrate, I punished that liver and made it work for its time off at another co-worker's going-away that night, heheh.
But yea, I'm still wondering about what the heck went wrong at the boss's going-away. Like, me & (my Russian co-worker) Sergei were both completely plastered out of our minds, even though we both pride ourselves on being able to hold our fair share of liquour. We're convinced we got roofied, or at least "slipped a mickey" or something. We were so gone that we both lost our phones that night. I ended up finding mine; he had to get a new one. And anyways, whatever it was, it was strong enough to stay in my system for like 3 or 4 days and still show up in the blood test- that's pretty wild.
posted by Dear Daniel at 7:00 PM
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