heathber

Hi Stephanie,  I also have no use of my left hand/arm my fingers generally curl in and my thumb gets trapped too. One handed cooking is not as impossible as you might think. the slow/pressure cooker is my lifeline these days. it lives on the kitchen bench and is heavy enough that you don't need to hold it while you stir. A small capacity food processor that also sticks to the bench is very useful. I tend to cook once a week and freeze extra portions. my go to's are curries and risotto. pressure cooked risotto is really easy. if I'm cooking with meat I get it cut by the butcher rather than trying to do it myself, then all I need to do is take it out of the bag. there are fancy chopping boards that will hold vegies still so you can chop them, although I've found them more of a nuisance than a help so far, and I accept that sometimes stuff gets away and will need to be washed again before going in the pot. Tenura non slip matting is my saviour in the kitchen, anything smoothish and dry will stick to it so you can open jars and bottles by putting them on it and pressing down while turning with the good hand.  it also holds paper still while writing and holds bread still while you butter it. it's food safe, heatproof and washable, but sharp knives will cut it so some common sense is required.

You can do this

-Heather

Thanks Tracy. I'm doing well now other than needing way too many naps. I had my post hospital GP checkup this morning and fell asleep in the waiting room :)

Yep it started about 6 weeks ago now. I had a gall stone stuck in my bile duct. Thankfully no infection and ultra sound and MRI said it had passed so hospital sent me home.  But my liver was badly affected and did not recover even after the stone had passed.

Then to add to the fun I had a major reaction to the bilirubin in my skin and came out in the worst case of hives I've ever had. Thankfully that only lasted about a week.

Then I passed another stone and ended up back in hospital.  This time they took it a bit more seriously and I ended up having a huge string of tests with the conclusion of "we can tell you all the things that are NOT wrong with your liver"  but this time they did do the ERCP, cleaned out the bile duct and did a sphincterotomy so any further stones could be passed more easily.  After cleaning out the bile duct (even though the report says it was clear) my liver has started to function again Thank goodness!  Although it's not quite there yet and I have to go to the liver outpatient clinic after Easter.

But then my blood pressure went through the floor and I went all fuzzy in the head and started fainting. Two MET calls later I passed a dead blood stool and they concluded the sphincterotomy had been bleeding. When your brain has to cope with having a main artery missing low red blood cell count has nasty effects. So as my haema counts had stopped falling and with normal diet (they had been fasting me a lot because of the tests) my bp was also recovered they decided I was better off at home. So I'm back home now working from home and being good so I can go to the holiday house for Easter with the family.

So what I expected to be a 24-48 hour visit to hospital turned into a 10 day stint and scaring everyone.  And now I'm back to square one on the energy scale.  The worst part of having a sick liver is that I'm not allowed any strenuous exercise, so I've been out of running program and gym since this started and at this stage it'll be another couple of months before I'll get clearance to go back.  

The liver needs to completely recover and then they'll probably remove my gall bladder and it'll be 4 - 6 weeks after the gall bladder removal that I'll get clearance to return to exercise.

So that's the saga of the last 6 weeks - Sorry for rambling on but it's good to write it all down.

I hope you have been doing better than me

-Heather