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Cirrhosis or Crazy?

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Posted 8/29/2012 3:02 PM (GMT 0)
I am a 49 year old woman and I drank 3-4 glasses of wine a day for about 5-7 years. Sometimes I would drink a bottle. I have stopped drinking, but I'm afraid it's too late. I had a gastric sleeve in Feb 2010. Initially, I had no problems. First my back started hurting (July 2010). In August 2010, I started having problem with my throat feeling like it was closing up. I had an upper GI and diagnosed with GERD. In May 2011, my right side started hurting. That is when I started having the ultrasounds- 3 of them. I had another upper GI in December 2011 and the gastroenterologist said that I had gastritis. My side continued to hurt- sometimes a 4/5 out of 10. In February, I stopped drinking and my right side is actually much better now. I still "feel" something in my right side and my back hurts daily. I had a hydascan to check gallbaldder and it was normal. I had a ct in July and it was normal. However, I had a fecal fat test in July and it was positive for malabsorption. I am taking omeprazole for GERD, a multivitamin, calcium, B12 and Vitamin D everyday. The malabsorption is a huge concern. With a gastric bypass, malabsorption is to be expected, but not with a gastric sleeve. There is something going on. Is there any way I can be at end stage cirrhosis and have normal labs and ct? I have all the symptoms of cirrhosis- red dots on torso, broken vessels around nose and a suspicious spot on my forehead, hair loss, fecal fat malabsorption, fatigue, really strong nail (always been soft), mild pain (more of an ache) on right side of abdomen, back pain on right side all the time. I also feel like my heart is pounding at times- sometimes when I eat, go upstairs, lie down at night. I am just at a loss. I have been tested over and over again. I think I am going crazy. Seriously. My hair is falling out like crazy...

April labs:
BUN 18
creatinine .77
Sodium 142
Potassium 4.4
Calcium 9.3
Protein 6.4
Albumin 4.1
Bilirubin 0.6
AST 11
ALT 8
Vit D 41.5
hemoglobin 13.3
hematocrit 39.9
glucose 93

June labs:
BUN 20 (high)
creatinine .80
sodium 144
potassium 4.7
calcium 9.6
total protein 7.1
albumin 4.5
bilirubin 0.6
AST 22
ALT 24
vit d ?
hemoglobin 13.5
hemacrit 39.9
glucose 70

Can anyone give me any insight? I have been to so many doctors and I am beginning to think I am crazy.
Posted 8/29/2012 5:24 PM (GMT 0)
Hi ANN, and welcome to the forum.

We are not doctors or nurses, rather patients and caregivers affected by the many types of liver disease.

Your numbers look wonderful to me...my partner has Hep C and has had such crazy labs over the years, he'd LOVE To have this lab slip!!!!

But surely there is something going on with you.

My recommendation would be to get referred or call yourself to a GI doc at a major medical center...not a community doc who does colonoscopies. Something isn't right.

Livers don't cause a lot of pain, but you can have a chronic pancreatitis, for example. Or or or....

My partner has periods of malabsorbtion also. he loses weight duing those periods. They have had him on digestive enzyments for years...with lipase, amylase and another "...ase" I can't remember. He gets them by prescription -- CREON. He takes one cap before each meal and then he better utilzes the foods. I"ve seen similar in the health food store, but most of the liver docs don't much like supplements that don't have FDA scrutiny.

In addition, Mike had two "pill endoscopies" before his transplant because he had such crazy blood counts they wondered if he was bleeding internally. And yup yup yup he was. You swallow the pill, wear a monitor that captures 2 photos a second that the pill takes with a tiny camera as it twists and twirls through your whole digestive system. They can see anything odd....bleeding, polyps etc. But they can't tell exactly WHERE because the pill isn't that exact. they know which patients need more attention.

So after they "saw some stuff" they did a double baloon enteroscopy. Like a colonoscopy or endoscopy, but it goes all the way from mouth down...through the small intestine. Half way done, they marked the small bowel with a dye and pulled out. Then started at the anus and worked their way to the dye marker. Evidently it moves a certain distance...I say three inches to make my mental picture work. Blow up the littlebaloons and turn on the tiny light, peek about, cauterize if necessary (maybe there is a tiny lazer in there?), deflate the ballons, turn off the light and move on. Mike was "under" for about 4 hours. It is tedius at best. But they found stuff, cauterized it,and he felt better on the way home from the hospital! What they found were AVMs. These are small clulsters of capillaries that don't really go anywhere, they get filled with blood and can pop, they don't return the blood to the heart, they keep it and it can leak. Which it was. The doc told us that you can be born with AVMs.

Can you have that sleeve thing reversed? Should you?

Regardless of whether this is a "liver thing" let us hear from you.

I hope you can find some relief soon.

Best,
Mama Lama
Posted 8/29/2012 5:29 PM (GMT 0)
My GI is pretty reputable. He is convinced there's nothing wrong with my liver. I am just worried sick. Maybe that is causing all these problems. I just KNOW something is wrong. The sleeve cannot be reversed. Bless you for responding.
Posted 8/29/2012 7:40 PM (GMT 0)
My sister in law knew something was wrong. She went to the GI doc. He did a colonoscopy. Fine he said. He did a pill endoscopy. Nothing. She complained more. She went again, took antacids. He told her it was in her head. She had stage 4 colon cancer -- when someone took the time to look at an ER when she arrived with excruciating pain. Use your instincts. Try another doc. Listen to your body. Carol
Posted 8/29/2012 8:10 PM (GMT 0)
Ann, welcome to the forum. I would ask for a 2nd opinion from hepatologist. As ML said, trust your instincts.

Hugs,
Connie
Posted 8/29/2012 8:49 PM (GMT 0)
I have a wonderful family, but they are growing weary of my "health problems." I guess that's why I have turned to this message board. Thank you.
Posted 8/26/2013 4:53 PM (GMT 0)
Just came across your post as I continue to study and research my health problems. I too have almost normal labs and have cirrhosis. But in looking at your labs I do not see IgG or other labs for autoimmune problems. I too had front and back, right-sided pain. Ended up with a gall bladder removal I probably didn't need, but the surgeon took color pics of my liver to show I had cirrhosis. So after a dozen years of them acting like I was "crazy" and pushing antidepressants at me, I find out I have autoimmune hepatitis. That my nuclear auto antibodies are attacking my liver cells. I go down to Mayo and they confirm this, and Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD), and Lupus, and so on, and so on. Come to find out I'm not crazy or depressed, I'm being poisoned by their "pills" to be even sicker. Come to find out I can't think because of toxins not processed by my liver are damaging my brain. So 5000 units of Vitamins D, and a Paleo diet; plus lots of water and I can't be well every day but my labs are almost normal. The right side pain is almost gone even though I have cirrhosis. I'm hoping to stave off or "heal" myself fully even though the Mayo transplant doctor said "YOU WILL NEVER GET BETTER!". She's wrong of course. I'm already better for being a purist, and cutting all sugar and carbs from my diet. I don't trust anyone that says you can never get better, and I can't help you until you get worse. So I guess I have to help myself right? Please go get checked for autoimmune diseases like autoimmune hepatitis, Lupus, Hashimoto's, MCTD. If you have one, you may have others as they tend to attack you in groups. God bless, and I will pray that you get the information you need to be well.

Post Edited By Moderator (hep93) : 8/26/2013 11:33:02 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 8/26/2013 5:36 PM (GMT 0)
Tanada, welcome to the forum. You picked up on an old post...I don't think she has ever come back...but you have valuable info and I also would like to add some things. I go to Mayo FL and had my liver TP there. One of our mods has AIH and if you will start your own thread, I will alert her to it. If you know how to copy, cut, and paste, please do so...click on New Topic instead of Reply...give it a subject with AIH in the topic. If you can't do this, then start a new topic and rewrite the part about yourself.

P.S. I see you haven't done this yet, so I wanted to mention that you should be on other medication that is specific to AIH. I hope you are not just a "drive by" and will return and start your own thread for specific info.

Welcome aboard!

Hugs,
Connie
Posted 8/30/2013 8:12 PM (GMT 0)
your Bilirubin would definitely be higher if you had Cirrhosis! ask the GI everything that you tell us because he would know a lot more then us. good luck
Posted 9/2/2013 8:31 PM (GMT 0)
An AST of 22 and an ALT of 24. boy would I like to have those numbers. Mine have been both over one hundred for the last couple of years.
Posted 9/3/2013 9:44 PM (GMT 0)
Just got my labs back today (9/3/13). Everything was normal, as usual, except my B12 was 1500. I do take a supplement because I had gastric surgery three years ago. Should I be worried? When I inquired about the high B12 level, the nurse said that if it were due to cirrhosis, the liver enzymes would have been elevated as well.

SInce I last posted, I have had an ultrasound and a Ct, which were both normal. Also had a normal upper GI. The malabsorption is still a problem, but I did a three day collection test which proved to be normal. Still have "awareness" of liver on right side. Sometimes it hurts, but not at much as it used to.
Posted 9/4/2013 2:36 AM (GMT 0)
Maybe biliary colic?
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