Autoimmune Hepatitis Research Paper

Human beings are arguably the most complex organisms on the planet, but in it’s complexity sometimes it attacks itself. One of those attacks is Autoimmune Hepatitis, which is inflammation to the liver. Autoimmune Hepatitis is a rare disease, and is very chronic, it can last for a lifetime. It attacked my dad in 2004 and changed my life for better and for worse.

Sometimes we don’t expect the worst in life. My family and I definitely didn’t, my dad had a full time job at The YMCA, was a local youth pastor, and full time pastor. The day we found out about his diagnosis was a hard one. I don’t remember the “official” day it happened, but I do know it was a tough. This disease definitely changed our lives from the start of it. In the beginnings

of this happening he began to get really sick. My dad got put on many different medications and still has to use them all today. Some of these medicines came with many side effects, confusion, weakness, becoming jaundiced, and more. His confusion was one of the hardest because some days he wouldn’t remember things that had happened nearly an hour ago, or even our names.
It came to the point where he was in hospitals for months. He would have to go to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and would stay there for weeks. In the middle of all of this, he was put on disability. Eli and I had a difficult time not being able to see our dad, or having to visit him in the hospital after school. All of this was very hard, but we have always had faith and trust that one day he will get better. We have had so many people that love and care for us help at many different points. I believe that even through hard times, you can get through it if you believe that it CAN happen.
Now, my dad is doing awesome, he is not healed but he is doing so much better than he was. He has the opportunity to work at The Peers Project, which is having highschool student go into the middle schools and teach about good decisions. Access Academy, he is teaching non communicative kids with autism honors classes and having them be able to communicate through an Ipad. Things like this show me how lucky I am that he is alive and doing much better.
Through this hard time, it has shown me that God is working in my life. I am very fortunate to have a great family and friends. Everybody goes through hard times in life, and it can be tough to get through them, but you just have to believe that good things will come out of it. Yes, my dad did change for worse but he also changed for better, because he has shown many people what it is like to go through a painful time and turn it into a positive.