Another country heard from

Just got off the phone with 

David Kleiner, MD, PhD ... 
Laboratory of Pathology
Head, Histopathology and Autopsy Pathology
Staff Clinician
Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute

  http://ccr.cancer.gov/staff/staff.asp?profileid=5843

a/k/a ... liver pathology stud.

...

He finds no fault with the previous pathology report, but ... in consultation with the liver docs at his weekly "liver biopsy conference ..." they are certain that this IS a Drug-Induced Liver Injury.

They think it's FAR more likely that it was caused by the Cymbalta (prescribed at a ridiculously high dose, to treat the corneal neuropathic pain) than that it was caused by the anticonvulsant that I took in October.

[60mg a day is considered a pretty high dose of Cymbalta.  I was prescribed (and was taking) 120mg.  No reason in the world not to be monitoring my liver functions during therapy with that high a dose.  Sigh......]

He thinks the "allergy testing" (either skin testing or 'in vitro' testing, in a petri dish, effectively) is the best route to take, to try to get even more certainty about this.

Agrees that there's significant risk in my taking ANYTHING (he thinks narcotics are low risk, but not NO risk) until I've met with Immunology and had this sort of testing.

Called mine a "very interesting case."  I told him how tired I had become of being medically interesting.  He said it's common among his pathologist colleagues to say ... in pathology, you don't WANT to be interesting.  We both had a laugh about that.  I stopped laughing first ;-)

April 4th with Immunology.  I just have to HOPE that UC Irvine Immunology is familiar with, and DOES the kind of drug allergy testing that I'm talking about, and ... if they DO this kind of testing ... that it would elicit a problem with Cymbalta, if it wasn't a "classically allergic reaction."

There's a long way to go, and ... from what I've seen in terms of how long it takes to get appointments with these specialty clinics ... I have absolutely no idea how long it's going to take.

I'm not holding up very well.  Sleep is poor.  Eyes -- not surprisingly -- hurt.  The viral, bacterial, and fungal stuff ... won't go away, and ... I STILL can't take any meds to treat it. 

And ... Mom got sick yesterday morning.  I had slept so poorly, and so little, that I had to call Uncle Stu to come up and help ME help HER.  He did ... bless his gigantic heart.  Mom's getting better.  It was an episode ... but a vicious episode, for sure, and plenty painful to watch.

One day at a time .... I guess. 

Time passes slowly ... here ... in the vast wasteland that is ... The Gulag.