Adam was diagnosed with Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH) in January of 2002.

Autoimmune hepatitis is a chronic inflammatory liver disease with, usually, no known cause. Autoimmune hepatitis may resolve without treatment in some individuals, but, for the majority of individuals, it is chronic and can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. It is when one's own immune system attacks and destroys the liver.

There are 2 different types of autoimmune hepatitis. Adam has Type 2 AIH which is characterized by auto antibodies directed against liver/ kidney microsomes (LKM) and/or antibodies directed against liver cytosolic protein (LC1). Clinically AIH-2 shows earlier age of onset than AIH-1, it has a higher inflammatory activity and more frequent relapses and progression to cirrhosis under immunosuppressive treatment.

Unfortunately for Adam, his type of AIH is worsened by the fact that we cannot monitor the disease through blood work, as all his labs show that nothing is wrong with his liver, so we have many more liver biopsies ahead of us. It is the only way to see the true picture. After year and a half of treatment, his liver is still moderately inflamed with severe scaring.

Adam experiences several of the classic symptoms like fatigue, abdominal pain, severe acne, joint pain, joint swelling, chest pain, and low grade fevers. He misses quite a bit of school due to these symptoms and the symptoms associated with the treatment of AIH. They treat this disease with steroids in hopes that it reduces the inflammation of his liver and slows down the immune system enough to stop the progression to cirrhosis, thus leaving him susceptible to every infection known to mankind!

He is 14 years old and attending his first year of high school. He enjoys cooking, movies, playing guitar, and video games and loves driving his golf car (fast) around our property!