Hi can someone please help? UPDATE! Got my results already.

Hi I am new on here and I really don't know if I'm posting in the right section so please forgive me if I'm doing it wrong.

A little about me, I'm female, I'm 35 and I'm currently pregnant with our first child.
I used to drink a lot at weekends when I was younger, I never paid attention to the risks involved, stupid I know but I was very foolish back then and I hadn't a clue as to what damage I could have been doing to my body.
A few years ago I cut down on drinking, but I didn't stop until spring 2012. My reason for stopping was I wanted to lose weight and was fed up with nasty hangovers. Subsequently a few months after this I discovered I was pregnant.

Going back a few years I noticed a few things happening with my body but I didn't pay much attention to these things and didnt go to the doctor. Ok so first thing I noticed was these strange clusters of veins on my legs, though I must stress I did work in a cold factory where I had to stand up all day on a production line and wearing welly boots so I don't know if these are alcohol related or related to my job that I had done for a few years at this point.

Next was probably the day I found a slight bit of rectal bleeding. I don't recall any pain that time but this went on for a few toilet trips over about 2 days and then stopped.

A long time after this I started to get frequent nose bleeds and I noticed that it was always my right nostril, never ever my left nostril. This went on for a few weeks.

Ok so present day now and a few weeks ago my mum was staying with us and she started wiping my chin like as if I was a child, I said whats up and she says around your mouth looks stained, but it won't come off! I went home and looked in the mirror and couldn't see anything so I forgot about it. Last week my boyfriend took a photo of me and when I looked at the screen all I saw was yellow around my mouth. My boyfriend said its just the light and I said u dont understand my mum saw the same thing a few weeks back. So yesterday we were mucking around with the camera again and this time in a different room of the house. Same thing in photos of me, yellow around my mouth.

So the past few days I've been googling symptoms. I'm convinced the veins on my lower left leg are Spider Angioma and I'm convinced my mouth is jaundiced and I'm really scared. Btw I know that pregnancy can cause liver problems temporarily but most of these symptoms came about a long time before I got pregnant.

Am I putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 4? Or am I worried over nothing. Btw I do get the odd nosebleed but haven't had rectal bleeding before or since the above mentioned occasion.

Can I do a test for liver disease whilst pregnant or should I wait until after the birth? I am 7 months pregnant. And one more thing I have never had jaundice around or on my eyes.

Post Edited (Worriedneedhelp) : 1/14/2013 7:51:48 AM (GMT-7)

Thank you for your reply.

If I can just say the angioma on my legs, I have had them for quite a few years now and one angioma is quite big and prominent. They are mainly around my left ankle, though I do have 1 on my right ankle.

I don't want to drink again after this, I've not even been tempted to drink since before I found out I was pregnant and I have now gone from being someone who enjoyed alcohol to absolutely loathing the stuff and its got nothing to do with having a baby, its more like everytime I see an alcohol ad on tv I just think of my own health and say no thanks out loud.

I'm hoping I can be tested while pregnant, everytime I look down at my legs I just want to cry as I have it in my head that the spider angiomas are alcohol related though I hope they were gained from standing in welly boots for 13 plus years, though I doubt it.

I've made up my mind I'm making an appointment with the doctor when I get up in the morning. I've found it very hard to sleep this past few weeks, not good.

Worried, welcome to the forum! However, I doubt you will need us. I see nothing that would indicate liver disease. I feel sure that the angioma are from standing all those years. In liver patients, they appear on the chest area, hands, or face. The nosebleeds are a bit concerning, but that could be that there's a problem with your clotting factor or related to something else like dryness of your environment (using heat.) I think you have probably dodged a bullet by stopping drinking.

Has no blood been taken while you are pregnant? To rule out liver problems, ask for a liver panel. Also, a CBC and bilirubin. This is all blood work. If the results warrant looking into something further, it would likely be a CT scan of the abdomen, if that's possible while 7 mos. pregnant.

Please see your doctor and have this blood work done, then return and let us know the outcome, one way or another.

Hugs,
Connie

I didn't experience withdrawals either when I stopped drinking. Partly because I'd reduced drinking to weekends and beer. Those who experience shaking and DTs are those who drank VERY heavily every day, and usually hard liquor. When I was pregnant with my daughter (back in the 60s), I only drank once...green beer on St. Patty's Day...and got sick as could be. I didn't take another drop for over a year past delivery. I was only an occasional drinker back then. But while pregnant, I didn't want anything I did to contribute to problems with the baby.

I really think that you and your baby will be fine, but do ask specifically about a liver panel (AST, ALT, GTT) to put your mind at ease.

Hugs,
Connie

Well I called my doctor and he can't see me until next Thursday :-( so I have to wait almost a week :-( and the next day i have my midwive's appointment. I'm going to try and keep positive though and hope that things are ok.
Just wondering as there's not much info on the net about Spider Angioma and other causes there may be for it does anyone know for sure that standing in a cold environment for long periods over time can cause these to form on the legs? I've only come across one website that mentions standing as a possible cause and would like to know if anyone knows of any other research into it. Also what could be causing the yellow around my mouth? Btw we have gone through some previous photos my boyfriend took of me over the length of our relationship and there's a picture that was with my iPod about 1 year ago that shows the yellow colouration quite vividly. So two cameras have picked this up, his iPhone and my iPod. Ok both are manufactured by the same company but surely this could mean something?

Thanks again.

Its definitely spider Angioma and for years its been very prominent on my left ankle, but ive only noticed the one on my right ankle a few weeks ago. There's 4 on that ankle with the biggest one being on the inside. It measures about 1.5 inches in diameter. I have also read that they can form in women who are taking oral contraceptives but I stopped taking contraceptives over 10 years ago so this couldn't be the reason why they are there.

I am fair skinned (I'm Irish lol) but I've never smoked as i hate the smell although my mother smoked around us a lot when we were children.

Hi thanks I will take a look at your link in a little while.

Hmm yeah maybe its a weight thing and I never thought of that. I've had these for about 5 or 6 years and from before and throughout that time I've struggled with being overweight. In my early twenties I went from a healthy size 14 to size 22-24 For a few years before being pregnant I went down to size 18 in clothes but even at that weight I was 15 stone which is over 3 stone over weight I believe for my height I'm a tall girl, 6ft. I've had to watch my weight during this pregnancy.

I am really starting to feel a bit more positive now about those. If they aren't due to liver issues I'm not bothered about the way they look and I wouldn't care if they never clear up or get removed. If they don't pose a problem I have no problem with them remaining. They do fill up from the middle when I press them and release my finger.

Have you been checked for Hep B or C? That could have exacerbated liver problems, along with your drinking. I say that because it doesn't sound as if you drank heavily for long enough to have the problems you have described to us.

Good morning everyone and hi David. To my knowledge I've never been tested for any hepatitis. Hep93 I am only ever tired a lot when I have had a hard day at work, having my period or lately but because of my pregnancy I could put it down to that instead. I don't recall being tired in the past for no real reason.

In feb 2011 to cut a long story short I had a smear test at a sexual health clinic. At the time I remembered I had been experiencing pain in my lower abdomen with slight bleeding from my vagina. This was because I had no way of joining a doctors surgery as I had no proof of I'd, I had lost my passport and had not budgeted to pay for a birth cert at the time as I was living alone and hadnt much money. Anyway.... Because it was a sex health clinic and not a normal doctors clinic they agreed to do a smear but they demanded a blood test too in order for them to justify the appointment so to speak.

The smear test came back ok, no cancer there but by this stage the pain and the bleeding had stopped. Anyway the nurse explained that I wanted to have me do a second blood test as the results of one of the bloods were not clear or they had messed up or whatever i dont renember exactly what she had said. So I agreed and she got out her needle. Now I've never had good visible veins in either of my arms. The only vein that is visible is a small segment on my right arm. As it was still badly bruised from the previous visit (I have always bruised really easily) she decided not to do it and to bring me back a few weeks later. Stupidly I never made an appointment to go back as I didn't have cervical cancer or HIV or any other std that I knew of so I thought there was no point.

I keep thinking though that surely due to my pregnancy and all the blood tests I've had recently surely hepatitis would have been picked up at some point? I mean I know that one of my bloods was definitely for aids so wouldn't they have tested for hepatitis?!!!! I am thinking of calling my midwife on Monday and ask her to explain what each test has been so far. I've tried re-counting them in my head again and I think there have been 10. 1 was aids, 3 were blood sugar, 1 or possibly 2 were iron and 1 was blood type but that leaves at least 1 I have no idea what it was for, and its possible I have miscounted as there may have been 1 more. I don't remember exactly as I looked away both times when they were getting the tubes and needles ready, they were the tests where they keep the needle in but swap the blood tubes.
Btw David I had been drinking since I was around 20 years old so that's 15 years in total but like I said it was mainly weekends. Sometimes I would have drank during the week but only if I was off work on holidays which was not often.

Never assume that you were tested for Hep C. I had plenty of blood tests over 40 years, before they tested me for it.

Yeah David that is what I was saying, on NHS website they state that 1 test is for hepatitis b but they don't routinely test for hepatitis c. I'm calling my midwife on Monday to ask her if she could explain what each of the blood tests I have done so far are for and if hepatitis c is not among them I'm going to ask if I could have a hepatitis c test. I will just say I'm really worried about this and show her the photos that picked up the yellowness and show her my ankles too. I know she is not a doctor but surely she can do the hepatitis c blood test herself. Anyway I have a doc appointment on Thursday but I'm still going to that one too as I must get my whooping cough vaccination anyway so I'm sure I could get my docs opinion on my legs.

Its strange that they don't test for hepatitis c even though there are so many immigrants coming into the uk etc. I think this may change in a few years though.

The midwife may need to get an order from a doctor to take blood for hep C. They don't routinely test for viral hep here, either, unless there are obvious symptoms or the patient complains of exceptional fatigue, or there is a high risk factor. That is now changing to test those born from 1945 to '75, I believe. Personally, I think that everyone should be tested once a year, but that's not going to happen.

In my case, I had been telling my doctor since 1991 that I was unusually tired. My liver enzymes were also slightly elevated, though I had stopped drinking in '86. He blew it off, saying it was "hormones" and "smoking" (cigarettes.) At that time there was not a name for hep C or a test. They called it non-A, non-B, but there was no test for hep C. In '93, I got a new primary care doc, a woman. After hearing my complaint of fatigue, she tested for mononucleosis and viral hep. That's when I learned I had hep C and had the antibody for B. She told me that the test for C had just become available. To determine if it was chronic active or just chronic, she sent me to a GI doc. Biopsy showed that C was chronic active, meaning it was actively destroying my liver. The antibody for B meant that I'd been exposed to it, but my immune system had dealt with it. Both B and C were most likely contracted in 1969, when I was using IV drugs and sharing needles.

Hugs,
Connie

Lots of ways for blood transmission that are not drug related.

Shared tattoo needles or paint pots. Most are regulated now

Shared personal items as described

Needle pricks in medical settings

First responders at military or bloody crash sites. Spatter in eyes

Insect bites. Tho rare.

Transfusions before blood supply tests for hcv. Many hemophiliacs succumbed to hcv before blood tested

Very rare tragic medical errors -- transmission in dental instruments not properly disinfected between patients, criminal stole needles with drugs and returned them to inventory so as not to get caught with hcv

Etc

So. Folks should get tested

Carol

Post Edited By Moderator (hep93) : 1/5/2013 6:21:17 PM (GMT-7)