Personal message

On 20.08, I was on a family trip to celebrate my birthday & my mother noticed that my face looked a bit pale & that my eyes were yellow. Eventhough I had been feeling exhausted, weak & feverish for a week & had lost my appetite, I did not pay much attention to it. I assumed it must have been because of my hectic schedule for a month or maybe due to my ongoing periods. Within a day, my symptoms worsened. I did not feel like eating & puked whatever I ate, my energy had gone down, my entire body turned pale & I had a fever of 101 degrees. 

The next day, I rushed to the hospital to consult my physician. Looking at the symptoms, it was clear that I had jaundice but to identify the root cause, the doctor asked me to do Hepatitis A-E tests, all of which came back negative. This meant the jaundice was not due to contaminated food/water nor any hepatitis viruses. My physician asked me to get an ultrasound test. The left lobe of my liver appeared to be shrunken in the reports. Usually, during a liver infection, the organ tends to get inflamed, meaning larger in size. But my case was different. Looking at the report, my physician immediately transferred my file to the Hepatologist, as the case seemed severe & required a specialist to diagnose. 

I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH AUTOIMMUNE HEPATITIS.

Following my diagnosis, my doctor immediately put me on medication – including Prednisolone & Azathioprine – as well as supportive supplements like calcium, multivitamins, anti-acid reflux & a hepatoprotective medication.  I started taking high doses of steroids & Azathioprine, which took my body a while to get used to. The moment I took my pills, my heartbeat would pace faster, chills & shivers would run down my entire body, my nerves turned blue & would sweat uncontrollably. It was as if I was getting a panic attack.

I was not sure if this was normal to experience. During my next visit to my doctor, along with my weekly LFT (liver function test) reports, I highlighted my symptoms. My doctor reduced the dosage of Azathioprine & asked me to continue it for 1 week & observe changes to my side effects, but there weren’t any. The symptoms were the same. In fact, I started getting terrible cramps in the palms of my hands & feet, the pain of which was so bad that it made me restless & burst into tears. I again went to him but he asked me to observe my symptoms for another week. After three weeks, my LFT reports showed that my bilirubin markings were reducing, but my GGTP (a test for liver damage) markings were increasing & my symptoms continued. My doctor had me stop Azathioprine after analyzing that my body didn't respond well to it & switched me to an alternate.

Every medicine comes with its own list of side effects & I happened to experience some of them. Initially, when I was on the maximum dose of steroids, I felt a burst of energy flowing through my body. Despite being so weak due to pre-diagnosis weight loss, I was surprisingly on my toes throughout the day. I felt restless if I sat idle for even a bit – that’s the kind of energy I had. Having said that, the energy was superficially caused by the drugs I was taking. From within, my immunity cells were getting suppressed & my body couldn’t handle the extra energy. Due to this, the horrible cramps continued. It became difficult for me to walk even 50 steps without getting them.

After a month of taking this medications, my doctor had me do a Fibroscan to understand the extent of the damage. The doctor broke the news to me that I have compensated (1st Stage) liver cirrhosis. It took me a while to register this news.

I have no option but to gather the shattered pieces & build them into hope – the hope of survival & get through this, to recover. I need to quit my job to fight this disease & I can't do it without your support.