Elevated Ammonia Levels

Hi. My dad has the early stages of cirrosis not caused from drinking. He can't seem to get his ammonia levels down and he is taking lactulose and xiafaxin. He is not eating any red meat, no seafood. Basically, going vegetarian. He did get his ammonia levels down as far as 124 and then it shot back up to 187 and now it is down to 185? I know they want it down to about 40. He is loosing weight. My mom and I can tell, but he is still having a lot of fluid build up in his abdomen. He had a CT Scan, but it did not show anything else. What else could be causing all this? He does not have the energy like he used to either and he sweats big time doing the smallest amount of work even if it is inside the house.

The GI doctor had him at 60CC 4x a day and a few weeks ago said he should be taking 45CC a day 4x a day. What is TIPS? Other than being very tired, having no energy, and retaining fluid in the abdomen that is all the he is experiencing. Just the ammonia levels are way up there.

Hi Olivesqueeze,

Welcome to the forum. I too, am sorry that your dad is so sick. How old is he? How long has he been experiencing symptoms?

The more you can share with us, the more information forum members can share. Please post back.

Emma

Hi Olivesqueeze,

During my wife's four year battle with this disease her hepatologist prescribed 220 mgs of Zinc sulfate in addition to Xifaxan and lactalose to control her ammonia. Until the last few months before she passed, she never had a really bad episode of HE. Her hepatologist told us the Zinc, in addition to the other meds helped to keep the ammonia under control.

Just something you might want to ask your husband's doctor about.

Like Connie said your dad needs to be treated by a Hepatologist and not a GI doc. They have much more training and experience in treating liver disease.

"He along with a couple of other people were told their blood had come in contact with Hep C."

At the blood donation center that day or overall? Because LOTS of people end up with hep C as a result of needing transfusions back when they didn't have a screening test for hep C. Our member, David, contracted it that way.

Hep C doesn't have symptoms for many, many years. I contracted it in the late 60s and didn't have symptoms until '92, when I suddenly experienced fatigue which has only gotten worse with time.

Does your dad have symptoms of HE (hepatic encephalopathy) along with the high ammonia?

Hugs,
Connie

He would've found out eventually that he has hep C, just from the symptoms of fatigue, etc., which would lead to specific blood work. When I first experienced extreme fatigue, I went to my PCP with my complaints. The blood work showed the liver enzymes to be a little elevated. The doc blew it off, saying it was from smoking or hormones (was in perimenopause), etc. Then I got a new doc in '93 and the first thing she did was to test for mononucleosis and viral hepatitis. That's when I found that I had hep C and had also had hep B, but my immune system had kicked the hep B out. PCP sent me to a GI doc for a consult and he said to determine if the hep C was chronic active, I would need a liver biopsy. I had this about a month later and the sample showed chronic active hep C.

Hugs,
Connie

Thanks for the update, Olive. I hope that the Neomycin will work for your dad. I saw a new PA at Pain Clinic yesterday and he mentioned zinc tablets help with healing. (I have 2 leg ulcers that just opened up for no known reason.) Having had a transplant and being immunosuppressed, it takes a long time for wounds to heal, even tiny cuts.

Hugs,
Connie