autoimmune hepatitis

Welcome kiml,

I really don't know much about AIH, but I wanted to respond to your message.

My best guess would be that your liver may be inflamed, which will cause differing levels of discomfort in the area of your liver.  Mark, my fiance, still gets pain, even after transplant.

There are pain medications that might help.  Unfortunately, most everything the doctors can prescribe are processed through the liver, so you do have to be careful.

As I understand it, corticosteroids do have some side effects. (Mark was a little energetic and mouthy when he was taking Predisone, after his transplant. I did consider strangling him a couple of times, but it got better.   

There's a good article at http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/autoimmunehep/index.htm .  (I believe this is the same article that Jennifer posted in another "Autoimmune Hepatitis" thread.) It explains steroids, side effects, symptoms of the disease, and treatment options.

Do you have family or friends nearby to help?  These medications can make you pretty miserable. You should have someone help you with cooking and errands and the like.

As I say, I don't really know about AIH the way I do ESLD, cirrhosis and their complications.  But if you need to talk or rant or anything, just post here.  I am trying to check in at least once a day.

God Bless and stay strong.

I answered in your other post, but you have a question here that's unanswered, too.

Any liver disease can cause inflammation (swelling) in the liver, which will make you uncomfortable.  It sounds, based on your other thread, that the doctors are doing their best to find out what's aggravating your liver.

I hope the ursodiol helps.

Let us know how you're doing or if you have any questions or problems that we can help with.

God Bless.