doctors say the strangest things

A couple days ago, while changing the needle before giving Erik his fluids, I accidentally jabbed myself with the used needle. I called my vet to ask if the kind of hepatitis that Erik (likely) has can be transmitted to humans. She said she didn't think so but I should consult my doctor. (She said that he doesn't have the human strains, like B or C.)

So I called my doctor, and he said he didn't know but he would check. I gave him my vet's name and phone number so he could get anything he needed from Erik's medical records. I kind of figured that he and my vet would talk in medspeak not meaningful to ordinary humans, or something.

He called back the next day and said that he'd gone on the internet and he didn't think there would be a problem, but if I saw $symptoms I should give him a call. Err, ok, I could have done that -- and did, but found nothing conclusive. I think he was trying to be reassuring ("you can find anything on the internet"), whereas I see "going on the internet" as, at best, comparable to "going to the library". (It might also be "going to the local bar and trading gossip", of course.) If you went to the Johns Hopkins medical library, you probably got good information -- but you could have gone to the children's section of some backwater library for all I know, and been reassured that the Cat in the Hat would have said something if that were possible. I trust my doctor (if I didn't he wouldn't be my doctor), and I'm confident that he found reputable information, but his way of presenting that was not as helpful as he thought it would be. :-)

Erik update

Erik had his ultrasound today, looking for the cause of his liver problems. Or, more specifically, looking for a bad sign (blockage or tumor). The clinic told me that they would give the results to my vet who would, probably, call me Monday; they said the technician who would call to tell me he's ready for pick-up would not be able to give me any information.

I don't know if I got lucky or if having a family of long-term clients helps, but I got a call from the head vet. He said there's no evidence of blockage in the bile ducts (which there shouldn't be after the surgery he had, but you've got to check), and there is no evidence of tumors (yay!). Also no evidence of gallstones, just to be complete. The flow of bile out from the liver is impacted, but he thinks that's due to the infection and the routine rounds of antibiotics should keep that in check. He also told me that with the surgery Erik had, there can be, err, backflow of bad stuff back into the liver sometimes, and that might be what happened here. No way to tell and no way to fix it anyway.

He said that if bouts of serious illness occur become more frequent they can flush his system, but that's surgery and he doesn't think it's necessary. He thinks we should be doing the antibiotics monthly, which is a little more frequently than we've been doing, and my regular vet will call me to talk about it. He also recommended a dosage change in a maintenance drug; again, my vet will talk with me about it.

Significant numbers from Monday's blood test:
bilirubin 0.9 (normal 0.3)
SALT (liver enzyme) 1494 (normal 118, Erik's previous high 400) (!)
white blood count 33,000 (normal 15,000, Erik's last 20,000)

The last two together suggest lymphoma, which is why he had the ultrasound. I'm so glad he got a clean bill of health on that front!

Edit: weight on Monday: 7 pounds, 4 ounces -- which is up a few ounces from last time (yay!). And he basically didn't eat on Monday (was sick and disinterested), so maybe that means his normal weight is up another ounce or two.