Good news!

Just saw the doc this morning and my labs have improved significantly! My prayers were answered. I guess God and I saw eye to eye on this situation. He thought I should be back with my troops just as I did. ; )

I admit I was scared. I saw some of my lab results from when I was inpatient, and they were not pretty. My ALT levels went from over 900 to 441 today (normal is 7-56). It's still high, and a few others are too, but he expects them to continue to trend down to a normal range over the next few weeks. So, I have to stay another week here in Germany BUT he is confident that I will return to duty next week. Thank goodness... cuz I am going bonkers here. As far as the lesion on my liver, since I am not experiencing any pain they will leave it alone. I'll just follow-up with periodic labs down-range and another MRI when we demob to make sure it does not grow. All my hepatitis tests were negative. They don't know what causes all of this, but it's likely it was a virus of some kind.

Yes, I have enjoyed the long, clean showers and porcelain toilets. I've also experienced some guilt. I'm sure that will go away quickly once I'm back on the porta-potty. ; ) I will miss the clouds here too. I don't think there are clouds in Afghanistan, but I'll have to look again.

Thanks for all your prayers and emails. They were just what I needed for recovery.