This is something the I rarely discuss and I can’t believe that I am going to share this. I have talked about it a few times but after today I know that I really do need to share more.
Today this article was in the Daily Mail NAFLD talking about Liver disease and it woke me up, maybe it has given me the kick I deserve by not taking it as serious as I should have. To give the full story I need to talk about my Mum briefly as this is not my story to tell in detail. My Mum died at the age of 51 with cirrhosis of the liver.
Back to me, several years ago any time I had a blood test my ALT’s would be elevated – in short
ALT stands for alanine transaminase. It is an enzyme found mostly in the liver. An ALT test measures the amount of ALT in the blood.
When liver cells are damaged, they release ALT into the bloodstream. High levels of ALT in your blood may be a sign of a liver injury or disease. Some types of liver disease cause high ALT levels before you have symptoms of the disease. So, an ALT blood test may help diagnose certain liver diseases early.
https://medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/alt-blood-test/
I will never forget my own GP waiting to talk to me urgently for me to arrive at the surgery and him literally standing in reception as the surgery was closed. He sent me immediately to A&E at Aintree hospital to have another set of blood tests done as my liver markers tested so high.
This all happened after I was diagnosed with ME and have no relation, before my ME diagnosis I was tested for all things like this.
After more tests I was booked in to have a Liver Biopsy. A liver biopsy is taken by numbing the area over your liver and then pushing a large needle type of instrument through you skin into your liver to take a small piece of your live or biopsy to test. The pain from this test made me scream it was that painful.
Once you have had your biopsy taken you have to lie perfectly still on your back for many hours, I think it was six or 8 maybe more so that they can monitor you closely just in case you have bleeding.
When the results came through it was confirmed that I have Non Alcoholic Steatohepatitis or NASH, thankfully it doesn’t cause me issues other than pain around the area occasionally. It’s something that I rarely mention as I am so embarrassed, especially being this weight as people do judge.Unfortunately I have not seen my consultant for a while and any blood test that I have had my liver function seems to be OK.
Getting back to my Mum as she was only 51 when she passed they have suggested that she could have had a faulty enzyme, as 51 is very young to pass from Cirhossis. They think I could have had this passed on to me hypothetically.
Being bedridden and so bad lately I have not seen a consultant for a number of years now, yes I know that is extremely irresponsible. The only thing which bothers me is the amount of weight that I carry around the middle of my body. This does make me extremely insecure and I know that I have to do more, in need to be better.
Each year that comes closer to the age we lost my Mum terrifies me. The research that was carried out for the article was done at The University of Liverpool and refers to a lot of the questions that I have. Maybe I will reach out to them in the hope that a case like mine would be of interest to them. What I will do is start taking this more seriously starting with this large bottle of Evian and a trip to our favourite butcher to overhaul our diet.
If you have pain over the area of the Liver or experience pain after eating that isn’t from the stomach area it might be worth mentioning to your GP, whatever you do don’t google it!