If there’s orange in his pee, you could catch Hep B

And it could kill you. 1-3% of those who contract this horrible disease develop fulminant hepatic failure. And die. I’ll re-check these stats tomorrow when I visit my doctor, a liver transplant specialist at Tulane Abdominal Transplant Center.
I made it. But most people with ALT and AST and free bili levels like mine are in ICU. And they don’t all recover. Some begin anti virals which they stay on for four to five years if not for life. They are expensive and can have side effects as debilitating as the disease. Others’ only chance is a transplant. Some just kick the bucket.
Who’d have thought? Not me. I didn’t think all that could happen from having unprotected sex.
I’d been told by my lover that he had been tested for STD’s. He said he was clean. So, I overlooked his pumpkin orange colored urine, when I should have realized that his RBC’s weren’t breaking down, due to a disease process. And when his rotator cuff and right shoulder hurt and all he could do was lie around, I should have considered that the pain was referred from the lop sided lump bulging out from beneath his ribs on an otherwise lean and lanky frame, his “generous” liver. That’s what it is called when it is too big, and inflamed. Throwing out an S.O.S. of enzymes, ALT or SGOT. AST. My numbers were above 2000 when they had previously been 20, and 12.
I want to reference my Oxford Book of Quotations, to be reminded of what colored bile or ethers or qualities were attributed to liver. I think it is aptly named. Without it working, I couldn’t figure out why anything mattered. I didn’t feel alive. I had total disconnect. I had no hope in my body or mind.
I felt like a puppy dying of Parvo. I wouldn’t move for hours. Just my eyes. Geometry didn’t matter. Architecture. Philosophy. I was devoid of interest. Desire. Life force.
My diastolic pressure was 45 at night.
Teams of doctors interviewed me or informed me. Most were extraordinarily caring. And real. And competent.. My favorite was the young Jewish female Internist with kind eyes. I don’t remember seeing, in hospital, the rock star head of transplant surgery with the 122 page CV, in his early forties. He’s a beauty.
I had Hep B. replicating in my subfulminant liver. Who’d have thought?
My brilliant compassionate physician, Dr. Nathan Shores, took a calculated chance that I’d get well without much intervention. He didn’t want me to be impeded by feeling bad for life from meds I’d be chained to, so he gave me a chance to get well on my own, while being closely monitored.
And I got better.
I was very sick for five weeks. I was hospitalized. I lost a lot. Muscle mass. Direction in life. Ability to take care of myself or my dog or my home. But God does provide. And friends saw me through without me even having to ask.
I’m very appreciative. Still puzzled about losing my poise and balance. It was like having a spiritual stroke. I didn’t see it coming.
And you may not either.
Hep B is 50-100 times more transmittable than HIV or Hep C. Hep Delta cannot exist without Hep B, and it is often this combo which leads to sudden, acute life threatening fulminant liver.
Hep B virus can live for one month without water. It is found in saliva, tears, blood, seminal fluids. It could be caught from sharing a razor, but it is very easily transmitted sexually. I lived with the man who gave me Hep B in May and June. My blood work was positive for Hep B with recent surface antigens mid July. And I got sick suddenly in September. I didn’t think I could make it home from Rouse’s in the Quarter. My legs felt like toothpicks. I went to bed for four days and nights.
Friends came by and I’d stagger down stairs to let them in. They’d try to convince me to go to the hospital. It took a while. Everything seemed far away. I was pretty sure that this was a stage of dying.
My sleep was so disturbed, thin. The ammonia which my liver couldn’t break down was affecting my brain. I had no opinions. Even attaining non-attachment lost its shine. I was perplexed, dumbfounded, ill, and at the same time trying to be rational, responsible and keep my humour. After all, it is a grand journey.
But you can undertake it without catching hepatitis.
Get the HEP B vaccine. Don’t expose yourself. Don’t have sex with a man whose urine is dark orange because he could be a carrier or have chronic hepatitis and you could feel absolutely awful for a month or so, and then die.
Tell people they can contract Hep B sexually. And transmit it.
If there’s orange in your pee
You may already have Hep B
(Or another kind of bilirubin rising problem.)
Get checked out by your physician. Ask for a HEP B test. Get a vaccine. Use protection.
I am honored that I get to keep living.
Christine Maynard