Cirrhosis Support Group

so, i went in to see my GP last Friday, wanting to ask him about my diagnosis of fatty liver a couple of weeks ago

and also to ask him if i can get CT or MRI to further clarify what I have. he tells me "NO" - i don't need it - just stop drinking and eat healthy. which is what i have been doing.

i asked for the copy of Ultra Sound Report and conclusion it says is

"mild diffuse fatty infiltration of the liver without focal lesions."

what does it mean? i have "mild" case then?

also, what does without focal lesions mean?

thanks

It means you dodged a huge bullet. Stay sober, take care of yourself and you should be able to live a full and complete life.

forehand36: 1) remember that nobody, especially me, here on the Cirrhosis Support Group is a medical professional. IMHO your liver is only mildly diseased at this point--fatty liver is the first stage of alcoholic liver disease and can be reversed but ONLY if you discontinue using alcohol. The "focal lesions" are sores/inflammations on your liver, also reversible and also due to excessive alcohol use.

One nagging thought is how some (very few?)members posted here that ultrasound missed the cirrhosis. but i guess that's an exception rather than norm. my liver numbers are also within normal range.

ever since i quit drinking 10 weeks ago, i have been having insomnia, bone weary tiredness (fatigue), constant light headedness and sense of loss of balance (although I never fell). Also i am amenic with low red blood cell count, low hemoglobin and so on.

so, although nobody can say for sure (including my own GP), the health problems i have been having is not really related to the fatty liver or advanced liver disease, but something else.

Could be due to alcohol withdrawal? 10 weeks is a long time though. I drank on daily basis probably last 4 - 5 years. probably had 4, 5 beers with occasional hard liquor. enough for my small frame of body to get drunk. - 145 lbs

there are many here who quit drinking after liver disease diagnosis? do my symptoms sound familiar?

thanks for listening.

Ultrasounds are only as good as the technician performing the imaging test and the radiologist that interprets the test results. While I like to think that most of the people involved in the testing process are completely competent, sometimes there are issues with what the patient is actually told about the results.

The symptoms that you listed could very well be from your past drinking. I was already in advanced cirrhosis when I stopped drinking. Your body needs time to recover and 10 weeks is not nearly enough time for everything to become "normal" again, after all, it took 4-5 years to get to the point where you were having issues. It really didn't matter what form of alcohol you were drinking, they all contain enough pure alcohol to do damage to the liver.

I congratulate you on 10 weeks of sobriety! Keep thinking of how good you will feel once your body has had enough time to fully recover from the poisoning that you had been doing to yourself!!! You can accelerate recovery even more by having a proper diet and increasing your exercise just a little bit.

Another thought regarding your symptoms. I have been a diabetic for about 20 years, greatly exacerbated by my alcohol use back in the day. How are your blood sugars (blood glucose) levels? It should be part of the lab results that you got if you are not testing yourself. Your "light headedness and sense of loss of balance" could be impacted by your BG.

If you are anemic you might ask your doctor about an iron supplement. With a restored normal iron level you can cure the anemia so your body can heal faster. Just my thought, I'm no doctor either but it seems that would be how it would work. Also the Anemia is probably what is causing you fatigue.

Good luck I'll be praying for you

Paul

Off balance thing was one of my biggest symptoms. Started in short episodes of an hour or so about 6 weeks after I quit drinking. Eventually after a couple of weeks it got worse and I felt of balance from the minute I got up in the morning till last thing at night. Doc reckons it was caused by anxiety but I think mild HE. The sensation is now gone though !

yes, i did get prescription for iron pills. i have been taking it for the past few days. i don't konw how long it takes to restore iron, but so far, no difference in my dizziness symptoms.

unlike your husband Mommamac, my white blood, red blood cell counts, haemoglobin all went down in the last 10 weeks after i quit drinking. don't know why. white blood cell count went from 6.6 to 3.5 (normal is 4.0 to 11.0)in 10 weeks.

and feeling lousy after i quit. it is almost like my whole body feels like im somehow poisoned.

anyways, enough venting for me, and hope you all have a nice evening.

Forehand36

how long did it take for you to get rid of that feeling? my off the balance feeling never made me fall, but sometimes, i felt like i was on a ship rolling in the water.

i still have it, but not all the time. what i do have all the time is this feeling of light headedness - 24/7 with me. my GP initially said only thing he can do is refer me to neurologist and then changed his mind and told me take iron pill, multi, b12 for a couple of months and see if it will go away.

thanks