Skip to main content

The Numbers Game

My family doc and my gyn surgeon both sent consult requests to the GI folks after perusing my CT scan and my bloodwork. My liver enzymes (proteins that speed up chemical reactions in the body) are higher than they've ever been, which can signal liver injury of some kind. Cholesterol's higher than ever too. 

78 AST [standard range 0-32]
86 ALT [standard range 0-33]
287 Cholesterol [desirable less than 200; high more than 240]
196 LDL Cholesterol [desirable less than 100; very high more than 190]

And now we wait to hear from the GI folks.
Maybe it's a good sign they haven't called yet. Maybe they looked at my numbers and didn't think I was on my deathbed. If that's truly the case, a note in my online chart would be helpful. In the meantime, what do I do to keep my liver from getting fattier and to possibly reverse the effects?

Lose Weight

I know. Broken record. But it's more than just seeing the pounds drop on the digital scale. It's pretty much a whole new lifestyle: clean eating. My days of "everything in moderation" is out the window. This is something how it goes:
No white food (processed flour, white pasta and rice and bread, sugar, potatoes, etc.)
No soda
No other sugary drinks
No alcohol
No processed packaged food or meats
Little to no red meat 
No salty foods
No fried foods 
No FUN (as some of my friends pointed out)

Exercise

No surprise here either. According to Exercise is Medicine®, a global health initiative managed by the American College of Sports Medicine, slowly building up to at least 150 minutes per week or moderate-intensity aerobic activity is recommended. Plus strength training, 9k steps a day, stretching, yoga, and general activity (that doesn't involve lying on a couch or stuffing your mouth with anything listed above).

Take a Statin

Family doc gave me a script for rosuvastatin calcium, one of a group of drugs known as statins, which reduce the amount of cholesterol made by the liver (WHEN used along with proper diet, exercising, and losing weight ... see items 1 and 2).

On a positive note, my psychiatrist and I worked last year to get me off one mental health med that, turns out, is on lists of the top meds notorious for causing liver damage. Problem is, I was on it for years. Is the damage permanent? Dunno. My triglycerides are better than they've been in years (at the highest, over 400), though, so maybe six months after stopping the med, I'm seeing one benefit. And hey, my Hemoglobin A1c (the number that signals diabetes) and my blood pressure are normal. So I have that going for me.

107 Triglycerides [normal less than 150]
5.3 A1c [standard range less than 6]
119/75 Blood Pressure at last check [122/74 normal for women my age]

I just had my uterus removed in an effort to stay alive longer, given a family history of cancer (the spreading, terminal variety that took my mom). The last thing I need is my fatty boombalatty liver stepping in to screw things up.
Image by Alexa from Pixabay

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Big Words in the CT Scan Report

I was in the ER (for 12+ hours, but that's a story for another time) on January 2, trying to figure out why one month post-hysterectomy and three antibiotics later I was still in pain and showing signs of infection. Doctors tossed around words like "possible abscess" and "get extra tubes (of blood) in case we need them (to prep) for surgery to drain" said abscess. I drank oral contrast and they shot me up with IV contrast that made me feel like my whole body was being microwaved and like I was peeing my pants. Which, given all my recent UTI issues, wasn't entirely outside the realm of possibility.  Turns out, there was no post-op infection (other than perhaps a particularly nasty, drug-resistant bacterial UTI, courtesy the catheter inserted during the four-hour surgery). There wasn't much remarkable about anything on the abdominal scan, according to the report I read in my patient chart online the next day. Except three words written in the findings summ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sorry. Not Sorry.

I might have gotten someone in trouble.  A month ago, both my primary care provider (PCP) and my gynecology surgeon sent referrals to the hospital's gastroenterology department so I could get specialized care for NAFLD (and to see how much the disease has progressed and whether my liver has permanent damage).  A few days after the referrals, I sent a message via my online medical chart to gastro asking whether I needed to call to make an appointment or they'd call me. I received a snippy response saying they weren't doing anything until "the referral is accepted by the liver nurse."   And then nothing. My reaction was to assume that I was not being accepted. That for whatever reason, they rejected me and my fatsolivero. The only thing worse than hearing "Lose weight. Exercise" is hearing absolutely nothing. Crickets. Dead silence.  Last Thursday, I saw my PCP for an annual physical. When I told her the gastro office hadn't contacted me, she looked sh...
Post a Comment
Read more