if you’ve read part one of this saga then you’ll know that a few weeks ago I injured my hand whilst gardening resulting in a couple of days in hospital and a week off work, but that I was now fully recovered, or so I thought!
I had a week on holiday camping in Lincolnshire and when I came back I had an appointment to see the consultant again. He checked my hand and said all was good and then discharged me from his care.
But about a week or so later I started to feel ill, nothing specific just a bit bloated and with quite severe heartburn. I didn’t think much of it but made an appointment to see my doctor for last Friday, 26 June. However the day before that my wife woke me to get ready for work, but she said she thought I should try and see the doctor today rather than wait another day, As she said I had turned yellow!
I got up looked in the mirror and sure enough I had turned into “Homer Simpson” Overnight and my eyes were also very yellow. I was also feeling quite rough. I made an emergency appointment and went to the docs. She examined me and took some blood tests. She thought I might have Gall Stones, and she would arrange for me to have a scan in a week or so.
I wasn’t convinced about the Gall Stones so I read through the information that came with the antibiotics I had been taking a few weeks earlier for my hand, and there it said that in rare cases Augmentin can cause liver problems and it described my symptoms to a T.
As it happens my wife is a nurse working at the hospital where the blood samples were sent, so the next day she was able to check them on the computer. What she found was not good, she spoke to one of the Dr’s she works with and he said “where is your husband now” she said” at home and he said ” well get him into hospital now”
I know nothing about the readings that the blood tests gave, they mean nothing to me but here are a couple of them:- Alk. Phos> normal levels 25-120 Mine was 458. ALT normal level <40 mine was 256.
Once again I was off to hospital. Just there for a day while they gave me a scan, more blood tests and other tests. The conclusion was that I did not have Gall Stones but that the Augmentin I had taken for my hand injury had damaged my Liver.
The Cure? well there isn’t one but apparently it usually clears up in 6 - 8 weeks! So I am now stuck at home looking very yellow. The other symptoms I have are feeling extremely tired and worn out after doing the smallest task but worse than that is the itching, caused by the high levels of some chemical swirling around my body in my blood, it is extremely intense itching from head to toe and all points in between trying to sleep is really difficult because of it.
I have today had yet more blood tests to see if things are starting to improve. I’ll let you know.
Oh by the way the bush that I was trying to move at the start of part one, I have now moved
