Knowledge is Power
- Susan Pryde
- Oct 7, 2021
- 3 min read
Knowledge is power!
Reflecting back on pre-diagnosis me. The one who was gobsmacked by the revelation that I had liver disease, because there were no signs!!! Well, there were, but none that I could assign blame to directly.
The ones on my mind this week are lack of energy and intolerance to heat. We travel a lot. For those who do not know me, my husband and I are living full time in our fifth wheel, spending weeks or months in different areas based on where our family is, or places on our bucket list to see.
One of the most attractive parts to this way of life outside of family time was the exploration aspect. While you can see some grand sites from behind the windshield, if you really dig nature, you really need to be willing and able to use your own two feet. I am a camera nerd, so while I can put my setting on "sports" to get the stuff flying by the window, I do also love to do those intimate close up shots of living beings who may not appreciate me flying by them, disturbing their slumber, lunch or ... whatever.
Last year we spent four months in the warmth of the southwest. It's hot, folks...but you know, a dry heat, so there's that. And last year, I was 84 pounds heavier, and sporting a chonky 17" cm liver, stage 3 in fat level and stage 4 fibrosis level...and I was feeding it all of the wrong things. Whether or not I had liver issues, I was still doing all of the wrong things to be healthy. We had just hit the road for good in late August, and hit the southwest in mid October. I had enough time to outgrow some clothes by then, because while I work full time from our rig, 40 hours per week, I was eating and drinking like we were on vacation for two solid months, and the stress of selling our home for about two years along with the state of the world in 2020...well, yeah...I was on a bad roll.
To get to the whole point of this train of thought I'm on, is that last year it was "too hot to hike...let me just sit here in the water...with a patty melt...oh and how about a Pina Colada?". I'll eat better tomorrow. Which became many tomorrows. I did not know how badly I was hurting myself.
So in a nutshell, with a chonky liver, it was not only not able to filter out the toxins well, but it would work first on getting rid of those before it could do it's job to help me lose weight. And it was taking up space that my lungs and other organs needed to help me. Besides the extra 100+ pounds my body was carrying, I did not have the room for getting oxygen in when I would try to hike. Huffing and puffing and discouraged, but I tried.
I believe i have mentioned before that the liver is like your car's carburetor. When it is not functioning properly, it does not have the resources to keep your body temperature accurately. So I was out of breath and I overheated so, so fast. Top on the extra hundred or so pounds and I was stalled.
Today, my liver is a slim 14 cm, my body is 84 pounds lighter, and ultrasound
showing less fat (they call fat on your organs "visceral" fat...and that is going away!) I will need to get another liver fibroscan in December that will tell me how much fat and scarring (fibrosis) is there now, but I believe it will be much improved. I eat very clean, and I'm very strict with my food consumption. I do not feel deprived, the joy of being free far outweighs any food item tossed to the side.
Today, I can walk without getting winded, hike up and down hills, in the heat, both ways! It makes me really happy.
Love, Sue
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