The Baseball in my Football

In February, I couldn't ignore that feeling of "coming down with something".  I had nausea and increasing abdominal and upper back pain.  My Primary Doc ordered lab tests that showed I probably had liver inflammation.  (For my medical friends: AST, ALP & ALT) An ultrasound followed, showing a 7.5 - 8 cm mass in my liver.  

Oh, I thought it was just because I was getting old.

I'm a nurse, but don't know much about livers or tumors.  Maybe I was absent that day in college, when we covered it?

Turning to my favorite medical source, the WWW, I started searching and was very surprised to learn that, after the skin on our bodies, the liver is the next largest organ.  For an adult, it is the size of a football.  I was trying to visualize how a football could fit in my body with all that "other stuff".  Mine is inflamed.  Is that why I feel like I'm in my 9th month of pregnancy and the baby is pushing against my ribs?  I tried to visualize the 7.5 - 8 cm mass.  The web indicated that this was about the size of a baseball.  

Each day, I have been feeling worse.  I was referred to a Gastroenterologist, who wanted an upper abdominal MRI done.    The MRI confirmed that there was, indeed, a mass in my liver and that everything else seemed OK.  Either the MRI got a better measurement, or the mass had already grown to 8 cm - 8.5 cm.


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