Thursday's Thoughts

[DonnaBoll]

For many after diagnosis we worry if any new pain or symptom means we are getting sicker - that our PBC is now causing new things to happen to us - or worse, our PBC is progressing. I know from my own experience having PBC that we tend to blame anything 'new' on our PBC - or we wonder if our PBC is causing it.

I think it's important to keep all of this in perspective. PBC can certainly cause many problems for us, but everything isn't caused by our liver disease. I have had friends who have experienced symptoms like swelling, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, or even in one case chest pain and rectal bleeding .PLEASE check out anything 'new' with your doctor. So many times we can ignore something serious or that needs to be treated thinking "it's my PBC". Don't assume that. Let the experts make that decision. Having conversations with your doctor about anything new that has developed can make all the difference. It can often give you peace of mind that you are ok.

I hope we all can have peace of mind whenever we can. Knowing that what we are experiencing is normal, needs to be treated, or needs observation at the very least, we can feel we are doing all we can to take our ourselves. We owe it to ourselves to take the very best care of ourselves.

[iagra]

I agree with Donna on that.

I read a lot of posts where women/men worry that something new they have is caused by PBC. I had Hashimoto's, which is also an auto-immune disease, well before I had PBC. PBC is just one of the branches in the auto-immune-system-tree and not necessarily responsible for everything else that is going on.

[DonnaBoll Administrator in reply to iagra]

So true.. many many people have multiple auto immune diseases. The immune system is surely a complex entity of its own. The two very common autoimmune diseases that people have along with PBC are Sjogrens Syndrome (Sicca Syndrome) and osteoarthritis.