Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing, 1, 2, 3...

So. Many. Tests.

So I first got sick back in February 2024. I'd gone to Memphis to see family and to hang out with my dad for his birthday, and for the birthday of my baby brother, Coran, who died in July 2023. I wasn't feeling great the whole trip - I was vaguely nauseated, vaguely tired, vaguely had indigestion, everything was vague. Nothing was bad enough to completely keep me from eating, but I did lose some of my appetite. When I returned to Oakland the following week, nothing had gotten worse, but it also hadn't gotten better. I'm rarely sick, and when I am it only lasts for a few days, not more than a week. So I decided that, if I didn't feel better the next day, I was going to see my doctor.

I woke up with yellow eyes - jaundice.

I promptly freaked out and called the clinic. They had me come in that afternoon, and get blood drawn and a whole bunch of other tests to check my liver, pancreas, etc.

The day they got my results back, the nurse practitioner called me to tell me to go to the emergency room. Apparently, my liver enzymes were really high.

So I went. And did test after test after test.

Ultrasound.

MRI.

CT scan.

Xray.

Another CT scan.

Endoscope and ERCP - which gave me pancreatitis. A small version of hell.

It also showed that my bile duct was blocked, so they inserted a biliary stent to keep it open.

I was in the hospital for a total of 10 days, and could barely do anything for another week after that.

If you ever want to curse someone, curse them with pancreatitis - seriously, that shit is fucking miserable.

Since then, I've had more MRIs, more CT scans, a PET scan, blood tests, and biopsies. I've had FOUR ERCP procedures - the first to place the stent, the second to remove the stent, the third to place a new stent because the jaundice came back, and the fourth to replace that stent because my body decided it didn't like plastic (I can't really blame it, nasty stuff).

The main reason for all the testing is that nothing was showing as definitive. Everything was atypical or nonspecific, or some other term for "We don't know what the fuck is happening". Nothing said, "HERE'S the problem! Let's fix it!"

Until my second and third biopsies showed cancerous cells. An adenocarcinoma, to be specific. 

Cholangiocarcinoma.

And now the fun begins....