Porky and Bile

Apologies to George Gershwin, but it is hot here and I just never know what will appear in the Hepatitis Comics.This is sung to the tune of Summertime from Porgy and Bess:

Summertime,

And the liver is easy,

ALT is jumpin’

And bilirubin is high…

Your doctor’s rich

And your nurse is good lookin’

So hush little tummy,

Don’t you cry.

Do you think this will win a Tony?

Liver Olympics

With the recent London Olympics and World Hepatitis Day, it is time for the 2012 International O’liveric games. Instead of Olympic rings, the logo is five interlocking livers. Here are the events:

• Darts: Limited to patients on hepatitis C treatment, participants compete to see who is the fasted self-injector in the world.
• Liver throwing – Competition to see who can throw a post-transplanted cirrhotic liver the farthest.
• Marathon: Another event for patients on hepatitis C treatment, participants compete to see who is on treatment the longest. 
• 100 centimeter race – This race is so short, even a person with liver failure can enter.
• Synchronized Sleeping – Anyone want to join my team?

Even the Rocks…

I wonder if I am a bit obsessed with the liver. Just this week, I saw a rock that looked like a liver. Perhaps I do have rocks in my head. I guess that beats gallstones.

World Hepatitis Day

Today is World Hepatitis Day and to honor the occasion, I am not going to make anything up. I want to pass along information about the World Hepatitis Alliance’s campaign to set a Guinness World Record today. For more information, visit World Hepatitis Day.


This placard was created by Daryl Luster. Look for it all over the world...

Don’t worry, next week I will be back to my demented, biley self.

Lame Shows

There just isn’t enough programming on TV about the liver. Oprah has her own network, OWN. There is the Lifetime channel. It is time for the Liver channel. Here is the fall line-up:

Hepardy

Wheel of Misfortune

Liver and Order

Gall

America’s Got Bile

Hepatologist Who

Desperate Liverwives

Two and a Half Livers

America’s Top Liver

The West Lobe

The Liver Diaries

Buffy the Hepatitis-Slayer

I Love Liver

Little Liver on the Prairie

Xena: Liver Princess

And for late night viewers:

Liverman

Saturday Night Liver

Liver Coloring Books

Last week I horrified readers with my disclosure that I read books about the liver to my grandchildren. Lest you think I am completely off my rocker, let me assure you that I do normal things with my grand-kids. For instance, this week we are coloring in one of my favorite coloring books. 

Pat the Liver

Last week I showed a photo of my liverature (books about the liver), and this week, I feature one of my favorite liver books (other than Free from Hepatitis C, which I wrote). The book is Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and Liver Disorders, published by Genentech. It is an incredibly well written and illustrated board book. Although it is not intended for children, the board book format conjures up pictures in my mind of reading this book to my grandchildren.

So, in true irreverent completely satirical fashion, I offer you Pat the Liver, with apologies to Dorothy Kunhardt, author of Pat the Bunny:

Judy can pat the liver

Now you pat the liver

Judy’s gall bladder can play peek-a-boo with her liver

Now you play peek-a-boo with your liver

Paul can smell his bile

Now you smell your bile

and so on…