You're Only as Sexy as Your Diagnosis

As an aside, do you realize just how NOT SEXY a fatty liver is? I mean, sickness isn’t sexy in any situation, but telling someone you have a fatty liver is like putting all your embarrassing faults and habits out on display for public judgement.

You eat like trash.

You are a slovenly, sedentary lump.

You have no willpower.

You have no goals or ambitions or focus.

You’re generally disgusting.

Oh. Bad liver? You must be a raging alcoholic.

Hate to break it to everyone, though, but some studies have estimated one-quarter to one-third of the population have an undiagnosed fatty liver. For many people, there are never symptoms. I only realized mine when they did CT scans looking for something else and then saw abnormal bloodwork. Oh, by the way, you have a fatty liver. (Insert the words you know are coming: Lose weight. Exercise.)

You know what’s even more unsexy? And downright scary? The abbreviation I saw in my doctor’s post-visit notes as she was sending for the GI consult: NASH. That stands for Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis, and it’s defined as “the liver manifestation of a metabolic disorder…and the most severe form of NAFLD (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease).” I have not been diagnosed with this, but my docs are concerned enough about what they saw on that CT scan that they ordered the GI consult. The way to formally diagnose NASH is through further testing: ultrasound, MRI, something called elastography, and—the gold standard but more invasive—a liver biopsy.

Fun times to come? Not fun. Not sexy.

Image by Serena Wong from Pixabay

Comments

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 ne...

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...

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...

Livin' the Liver Life?

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