I Thought Things Were Bad - I Was Wrong

I had pretty much hit my tolerance point for pain and the structural integrity of my throat. There are only 3 weeks of treatments left and if things keep getting worse the way they have the last 2 or 3 weeks, I'm going to be way beyond my tolerance threshold. The only thing that worked to provide any type of sleep or pain relief was acetaminophen, which took the pain levels to tolerable and let me get some sleep. My throat sometimes just starts bleeding. The doctor says that's normal.

I thought that was bad. Then I got today's news and now that looks really good. I thought I was about as far down as I could go. Then I found out I was still on a step ladder and now that's been kicked out from under me. Or was that an extension ladder and I was really on the roof?

My liver function numbers went off the charts. The doc didn't say my liver quit, but he was obviously alarmed and I've got orders to not touch a drop of alcohol, no acetaminophen, no narcotic pain medications. Aspirin and ibuprofen were already banned because they can mask infections and my immune system is dead. They've killed my bone marrow.

The second doc I saw today thought it was ludicrous to attempt my treatments without pain relief and prescribed a moderate pain reliever that is reasonably safe in my situation.

Here are some possible causes for a sudden jump in the blood counts for liver function:

Uncommon side effect of the chemo. I have no information if this is considered permanent or temporary.

Overload of weakened liver function. This would be a combination of chemo weakening the liver function and then acetaminophen overloading the liver. Acetaminophen is tough on livers and if there is liver damage from acetaminophen, it freaks doctors out because they don't know what to do. They don't have a pill for it. This seems to be sometimes permanent and sometimes temporary.


A cancer that has spread to the liver. The first doc today ordered a CAT scan to include that area. At that time I wasn't aware of the cancer connection to the liver function tests, so I wasn't asking any questions.

They're not changing any of my treatments to see if that can restore liver function. I've said earlier that as long as they think they can keep me alive, nothing is off limits. If it's the chemo that's destroying my liver function, they're willing to risk my going for a month with impaired or no liver function.

If they think I may end up needing a liver transplant, well that's a way to keep me alive, so risking that is certainly within their treatment guidelines. None of my doctors have said that, but their attitude, arrogance, and lack of explaining anything is way beyond disgusting. I'm starting to get a pretty good read for which ones care about their patients and which ones just see the almost unlimited dollars available through insurance.

A slimeball, ambulance-chasing lawyer is a gentleman and a scholar compared to a cancer doctor who only cares how much money he can soak out of the insurance company before either the cancer or the treatments kill the patient. So far, I've found 2 out of 5 doctors I've dealt with to be in the money-grubbing category. I've only had one appointment with each of them and it will stay that way.