How It All Began...2008

For those of you who don't know the whole story and have no idea how or when my husband, Casey, got sick; let me start from the beginning.  Those of you who are very close to us and do know the whole story should read this as well.  There is a lot that went on "behind the scenes" that you may enjoy reading about. :-)

In September of 2008, Casey began to feel ill.  After a night of  fun and drinks with friends, he awoke to the feeling of nausea and was throwing up.  This lasted pretty much all day.  We both thought he was hungover from the night before and left it at that.  The next few days were not any better than the day before! Okay, so he's not hungover.  Maybe it was all those hot dogs and hamburgers he ate at the party?  The man can put down some hot dogs like nobody's business! Maybe he got food poisoning?  A couple of days later he still felt the same.  He has had constant nausea and was throwing up at least three times a day and was feeling extremely fatigued.  Maybe he had a touch of the stomach flu?  We decided to give it a few more days...wait, HE decided to give it a few more days.  I kept telling him to go to the doctor!!  But you know men; they hate doctors!  They would rather suffer with their ailments until they go away on their own...or until the wives drag them by the ears to the doctor's office!  A few more days passed with the same symptoms as well as other very scary symptoms! Beware, the following is not for the squeamish! ;-) His urine was very dark (tea colored) and his stool was very light (clay colored).  The whites of his eyes were very yellow and his skin was turning yellow as well.  During this time, his friends and  I nicknamed him Hilighter!  Casey has always had a great sense of humor so he didn't mind!  We had to do something to enlighten the situation!  But in reality, we were both scared to death!  This is where I had to put my foot down!  I did everything I possibly could, in lieu of dragging him by the ears, to convince him to go to the doctor.  I think by this time, he was so scared that I didn't have to try too terrible hard to convince him. 

He finally made an appointment with his family doctor.  His doctor took lots of blood work.  The blood work results came back the following week showing  liver abnormalities.  He was referred to an Imaging Clinic to get a CT Scan done on his liver.  A few days later, after the CT scan results arrived, his doctor referred him to a Hepatologist.  I went with him to his hepatologist appointment a few days after he was referred.  After the doctor looked at his CT Scan and blood work, he IMMEDIATELY wanted to admit him into the hospital!  Okay, now we are both OFFICIALLY scared!!  What the heck is going on?!  The whole day was a blur!  He was rushed through admitting and into a room so fast it made my head spin!!  He was at Denton Regional for two days before they decided to send him via Ambulance to Baylor-Dallas where they have the best liver doctors and a better facility to handle liver diseases.  Whoa...I just said Liver Disease!  Yes, we were told that he had some kind of liver disease!  I remember the first time I heard the doctor tell us he had some sort of liver disease, I almost hit the floor!  I was scared beyond words at that point!  Back to the ambulance...he was placed in an ambulance and was taken to Baylor-Dallas...and no, they did not use lights and sirens! :-(  It was scary, nonetheless, to see him wheeled on a stretcher into an ambulance.  They would not let me ride with him; so my mother-in-law drove me and we followed the ambulance.  You could see Casey's little head popping up trying to look out the ambulance windows to see if we could see him!  He's so darn cute!

So we finally get to Baylor-Dalllas.  It was a long ride, but at least we didn't have to go through the admitting process downstairs.  He was taken straight to his room.  It was not a pleasant looking room at all! It was very compact and old looking!  What happens next was very disturbing and overwhelming!  His room was BOMBARDED with doctors, nurses, interns, volunteers, research nurses, and clergymen!!    I was totally freaking out!  There were as many as 5 at at a time in his room...with paperwork out the wazoo!  They hurriedly rushed in and out and in and out with questions after endless questions and paperwork!  Many questions and paperwork were identical from what he filled out at Denton Regional.  Doctor after Doctor and nurse after nurse with the SAME questions!  OMG!  When was this going to end?  And when were they going to tell me what was wrong with my husband?!  They did test after test, scan after scan, MRI, xrays... and they drew numerous tubes of blood DAILY!  Yes, I said DAILY.  Poor Casey was in the hospital for two weeks before they figured out what was wrong with him!!  Stay tuned for his diagnosis!