Why I'm doing the survey

[Guest guest]

Dear members,

I've been asked to tell you a little about myself, so you know

who I am and why I'm conducting the survey. I was diagnosed with AIH

in 7-03. I was on prednisone for about 13 months, and am still on 50

mg azathioprine; I'll probably be on aza for a few more years. I've

had normal LFTs for about 10 months. To explain my email address, I

started my own, small publishing company a couple years ago to publish

my husband's chemical engineering textbook (he's a prof at the

Univ. of Wisconsin). My only other publishing plans are to publish his

second textbook, which he will hopefully finish writing this year.

When I joined the two autoimmune hepatitis , I read

many of the old postings to learn about others with AIH. The more I

learned, the less depressed I felt about having AIH. I don't think I'm

alone in wanting more info on things like how long other group members

have had AIH, treatment, etc. I've been frustrated in how little

research has been done in how this disease progresses.

I decided to volunteer to post, collect and report the results of

a survey of members of the two sites. I have written and

conducted surveys before, so I'm not a novice at this. I'm not doing

this for any reason other than to personally learn from the results

and share them with this group; I'd encourage the group to share the

results with their doctors and interested family members. Since my

hepatologist, Dr. Lucey, UW Hospitals, was kind enough to

review the survey questions, I certainly intend to share/discuss the

results with him.

BTW, I've already received 19 responses to the survey. Thanks.

All the best,

Cheryl, cheryl@...