Stage 4 diagnosis but normal functioning liver?
Hi Everyone! My mom was just diagnosed with stage 4 liver disease. Her doctor explained the damage to her liver in the same way a car, that’s been in an accident and has a smashed up hood and body, can still drive normally. It’s covered in cirrhosis but the liver itself is functioning normally. What’s hard to swallow is that less than 5yrs she had a liver biopsy that just showed signs of fatty liver, in such a short time it’s exceled to a stage 4 diagnosis?! Her doc believes it’s because of an underlying auto immune disorder... The research seems to say that this disease doesn’t deteriorate the liver this quickly, but maybe if the AA discorder is a factor it can? Her treatment so far is a heavy dose of steroids... has anyone else had a similar experience? Thanks so much for any advice/responses!
Every cause of Hepatitis has a different pace, and there are tons of other personal health factors which can play a role.
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease(NAFLD) and it's harsher form: Non-Alcoholic Stereo-Hepatitis (NASH) aren't my area of expertise, contrary to my namesake.But in my case my liver damaged progressed rapidly over six years. at 22 I had very few symptoms and minimal f1 cirrhosis, at 24, things started to get a little rough and I was assigned a MELD score and by 28 most of my symptoms were incredibly hard to manage, even medically.
For reference I was born with Hep C.
I hope your mom is able to get the transplant she needs, if she ends up needing one! Also remember that liver transplantation is one of the few areas where living donors are sometimes possible.
-Rick Nash (Six Time Treatment Dragon Slayer and Transplant Recipient )
This is my first post/question. I was diagnosed with Hep C in 2001. Over the years, I've done 3 treatments. Two of them with interferon and last was olysio(which cured my virus). I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cirrhosis in 2013. I haven't had a drink since then. My Dr says my liver is functioning normally, but I have swollen spleen, portal hypertension, low platelets, and so on.... The question I need answered, if at all possible, is about rectal bleeding. It happens 2 or 3 times a week. Does anyone else have this issue and what causes it? Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Hi Randy, thanks for the response. When I figure out how to change it, I will change my handle to Melissa S. The tarry stool and vomiting blood (enough to cover the bottom of the bathtub) occurred in 2012. I continued to work until 2014 when the encephalopathy showed up. But aside from that I do remember that I had a TIPS procedure. It's been over 5 years now since my transplant, so some of the details are starting to fade in my memory (not that I was mentally alert during that time). I just know for sure I never want to go through any of it again. Encephalopathy is a nightmare and the Lactulose treatment made me want to just go ahead and die. It would appear that I'm super-sensitive to it or my doctors downplayed what it was supposed to do, but it had at least 10 times the effect on me that they said it was supposed to have. The entire journey was like a roller coaster ride with my MELD score going up and then with treatment going back down. It had never dawned on me that cancer would be what would save my life by moving me up the list. I had great doctors and they watched it like a hawk until it was of a size to be treatable and to be added to my MELD score. After my MRI, ultrasound, CT scan, and x-rays last December they released me from all the scanning going forward as I had reached the five-year threshhold for cancer recurrence. I'm really grateful to have found this forum, because only those who are going through it or have been through it can understand.
