Let us know how things go!
@Smapti , I had no idea that you’re going through this. I have no medical advice; only some anecdotes and wishes for your recovery.
About twelve years ago I and my SO at the time were treated for Hepatitis C, he with considerable liver damage. Given the “or else” prognosis, he stopped completely for about nine months - occasionally drinking NA beer because his social life revolved around the pub. Today he is mostly fine- not the liver of a twenty year old but not in danger either.
In my nonmedical opinion, liver disease is nothing to laugh at, however it’s not necessarily a death sentence either. I wish you strength and healing.
Uh, I don’t suppose you happen to eat shitloads of peanut butter?
Nope. Just a PB&J as a late night snack every now and then.
Since my last post, I’ve had an endoscopy which found nothing to worry about in my esophagus or stomach at the time, and the gastroenterologist has informed me that, despite my condition, my liver functions are currently normal. I’ve had a televisit with the doctor running the clinical trial in Seattle, which is for an injectable similar to Ozempic, so I’m holding off on trying to get the real thing until a screening appointment I have a few weeks from now to see if I’m a good candidate for the study.
(Fortunately, if I do wind up getting a prescription for Ozempic, it looks like I’ll only have to pay about $10 a month for it thanks to my employer’s heavily subsidized insurance.)
Good to hear you’re doing well. Keep it up, and good luck with the study.
I do find it fascinating that there are foods that can be harmful even reasonable quantities. A pound of peanut butter a week is a lot, but still <20% of a person’s calories. It’s not like it was that person’s sole source of food or anything. It’s basically two PB&J sandwiches a day… unusual but not really extreme.
At any rate, I suppose it might be worth looking out for other oxalates in your diet as it does seem they can stress the liver.
Just reviving this because I have a question.
@Smapti said
How typical is it that if you go in for (say) a lung scan, the reader reviews the liver, since it’s there? I’m wondering because I get a yearly CT scan screening as a former smoker (quit >10 years and so far the scans are normal, thankfully) and I always look at the scans, and they include typically about 350 slices through the liver. If something were there, is it likely it would be noticed, or is it just serendipity if the reader of a lung scan sees something in the liver?
I don’t know if there is a way to quantify ‘how likely,’ but I can tell you when I’ve had abdominal scans that the doctor who looked at them commented on every organ in the scan.
I also knew someone who was in the hospital for pancreatitis and a lung tumor was noticed on those scans, even though that wasn’t what they were looking for. Not a nice surprise, but at least that lung cancer got caught early.
I was diagnosed a few times in hospital with conditions I was not in for.
I think if its a good hospital with a great nuclear radiologist on staff.
Yeah, thouroughness is kinda a hallmark of a good Doctor/hospital/and Radiology dept.
Especially if your ailments are complicated.
Yes, my husband recently had a bunch of scans for his cancer, and there are a ton of comments about other things that happened to be in view.
And my sister had a heart scan that turned up a scary liver lesion that turned out to be benign.
In my case, the doctors and I initially had no idea what was wrong with me except that I was having severe nausea and diarrhea to the point that I’d gone into hypovolemic shock (BP 90/55, 170 BPM in the ambulance). It wasn’t until the day I wound up being discharged that the lab work came back with a confirmed diagnosis of rotavirus (which wasn’t anyone’s first guess since adults usually have acquired immunity, but I’m not around children very often so my immunity probably degraded over time) and my first thought was I probably had ecoli or some other kind of food poisoning, so they were trying a lot of different things to treat my symptoms while they tried to figure it out - at one point I had about ten IV lines in me including one in my neck.
Wow - that’s awful. So sorry. Thank goodness they finally figured it out, but I’m a little surprised you had to go through so much before they did.
I didn’t even mention the supplementary oxygen or the blood pressure monitor in my wrist artery or the tube they stuck up my butt to drain me since I couldn’t exactly get up to use the toilet every half hour. It was the sickest I’ve ever been, but once they got me out of ICU they were able to get most of that out of me and I could move around in the recovery room they transferred me to.
I remember them coming into ICU around 5 AM one morning to ask me the standard questions to make sure I was lucid, and I had to admit I had no idea what hospital I was at because I was there on vacation.
I was in a low glucose event, was asked “who is the President”
I thought and said can I give you the name of one I voted for.
I don’t speak often so they thought I must’ve been brain damaged til I said a sentence. They giggled and decided I was really in there.