In my own obsessive way, I keep thinking back to the result

s of my liver ultrasound. The words I keep returning to are “paucity of bile ducts.” In an ideal world, paucity would be a giant dog rescue palace. But no, the term means “a lack of.” In other words, I have very few bile ducts.

In theory, this means my autoimmune system ran a stealth attack on my bile ducts. Although I never had my bile ducts counted before, were there every really more?

I know one was capped when my gallbladder was removed. But the rest should still have been working.

The job of the bile ducts is to produce bile which helps your small intestine break down food. Thankfully, there is medication that replaces, or substitutes for bile. Unfortunately, I will have to keep taking the medication for the rest of my life.

I would rather have a city of dogs. Alas, my apartment doesn’t even allow one. I hope someday to have a place where we can have pets. Goals are good. I just wish my body knew how to grow back bile ducts.