So after waiting six days to see a liver specialist who was an hours drive away, the day arrived and I was hopeful that maybe I would get some answers at last! We were now already into the second week of November.

I had arranged for my In-laws to come over and look after the children as my appointment was early evening and my husband was taking me. Just before we left, I received a call from the doctors secretary that I was due to see in just over an hour. She had given me the wrong appointment time originally and I just automatically refused to change it, I said we were already on our way (well we were just leaving) and he would have to wait until I got there. He did, I went in to his room, had the normal conversation of going through everything that had happened so far.

His main questions to me were:

• Do you drink a lot of alcohol ?
• When did you last drink alcohol?

Now I can see why he would ask them but my answers were quite simple, I only drink when I am entertain at home or if I am on a night out! Well we cannot currently entertain anyone at home (due to covid rules) and the last time I drank more than a glass or two was back in August at a friends 40th birthday.

Next he examined me, he checked where it was sore on my stomach and sides, he looked at my rash and then he did a fibroscan test which is a type of ultrasound that can measure the degree of inflammation in your liver. It is a simple, painless test that uses high frequency sound waves. Mine came back normal, he said that did not mean somethings was not attacking my liver especially as my enzymes were raised in both blood tests, however it did not show long term Liver damage!

It was a sense of relief and almost disappointment at the same time, I still had no idea what was wrong with me and just wanted a magic pill to make me better. My poor kiddies were just watching mummy at home tired, in pain and not normal to them. He then said he believed maybe it was some kind of autoimmune problem and he would write back to my GP with suggestions.

I left the appointment in a daze just wondering what was wrong with me!

I ended up chasing the Liver doctors secretary three times as it took over another week for him to send back the letter. Once my GP had the letter I was asked to go in to see him.

I booked my appointment and went the next day, my GP was still baffled, he did not know what was wrong with me and said that maybe it was some kind of autoimmune problem but there are so many! Also a lot of autoimmune diseases show similar symptoms so quite hard to diagnose. He decided to send me to an amazing rheumatologist based in London. I got home and rang to book an appointment I got one for the following week, Wednesday 25th November at 4.30pm.