Fatty Liver

medtran49 said:

My sympathies on your husband's passing.

Could it be something you are eating? I have a guilty pleasure. I LOVE Fritos and french onion dip. I really limit allowing myself to have these in the house because I tend to binge eat them when they are available. Reasons being not only the high fat and calorie content, but also due to the fact that almost always the day after I start eating them I get a feeling like there is a fist sized ball in that area. Like you, it is not really painful, but is uncomfortable and bothersome. A couple of days after the Fritos and dip are gone, the feeling goes away. It's a direct correlation so I know it's the food, which is why I get them less and less frequently now.

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I have the same problem with bingeing on Lay's Ruffles with Ridges and French onion dip. It's an every-few-months indulgence.

Little back story: I had a heart attack and got a stent. Then I was feeling pressure and dull pain in my right flank and was diagnosed with Fatty Liver. My doctor at the time tossed it out there and never referred to it again, even when I asked about treatment. So, I did my own research and found that a Ketogenic Diet was the only treatment for Fatty Liver. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1&q=fatty+liver+and+ketogenic+diet for your own research.


Triglycerides are directly related to the amount of carbs eaten, not fat. High triglycerides contribute largely to fatty liver. Again, do your own research, don't take my word for it or anyone else's. I am available by PM to answer questions if you like, but will not expound on the public forum about my diet and/or habits.


Anecdotal: I have lost 30 pounds, have reduced my Cardiac meds and have stopped all diabetes medications. It still took 2 more heart attacks and 3 more stents to get me healthy enough to exercise. My fatty liver has reduced by 50% in the last 4 years.

My condolences on your loss, my husband died last February from Metastatic Bladder Cancer.

I'm really impressed with how the human body can take such a hammering and bounce back. I've seen some bad stuff but almost every time ended in a good result. Back to the liver, I was thinking about 30 years ago I used to dress lambs and pigs as home kill. The lamb livers had huge build up of fat around them,the livers were the first thing grabbed. They were wrapped in huge amounts of fat.

Russ

Thanks so much for everyone's posts, hugs and suggestions. So appreciated!

I need to start eating healthier and get rid of some of my weight. That much I know for sure. I also need to chill on the alcohol. That's definitely not helping. I don't drink huge amounts, but I do so love a few drinks in the evenings. I never drink enough to actually get drunk because I hate that feeling. But right now any amount of alcohol isn't going to be good for me, so no use in trying to justify it. That's going to be one seriously hard habit to break.

On one hand, I'm glad I found out about this so I can take steps to make it better. However, on the other hand, as if I needed anything else to make me even crazier than I already am, knowing about this has severely depressed me and I walk around in a doom & gloom fog all day long. I keep thinking well, this is it, my life has been majorly shortened, so I may as well get used to the fact that I probably won't be here much longer.

And just thinking that way is wreaking havoc on my psyche. A movie I watched once had some older Southern woman in it that said "You think too much about the time you have left, you don't spend it living."

She said a mouthful there.

paulwilfer said:

Hi Linda,
Sorry to hear about your loss, actually I am also suffering with fatty liver. My doctors suggested me a change in diet and exercise that allows liver tissue to regenerate.

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Wow, I'd forgotten all about this thread. Thanks for your response.

My doctor told me that there are a LOT of people with fatty liver and don't even know it, nor do they ever find out about it, because fatty liver doesn't always develop into anything more than just that... excess fat on the liver. Apparently it's more common than I was aware of.

Linda0818 said:

Wow, I'd forgotten all about this thread. Thanks for your response.

My doctor told me that there are a LOT of people with fatty liver and don't even know it, nor do they ever find out about it, because fatty liver doesn't always develop into anything more than just that... excess fat on the liver. Apparently it's more common than I was aware of.

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if i knew there was a discussion about my fat liver, i would have joined months ago. i am living it now. i did my annual blood tests required of me by my doc. my ALT enzymes would go up and down.. the last two times, they went up again. time for my doc to further investigate. 1st step would be the blood test. they ultrasounded me just a few days ago, and it looks okay. fat but okay. i think they look for important passages to be clear. not sure, i'm not a doctor. i then went in for a special test called FIBROSCAN. it measures liver density. it confirmed my fatty liver as "advanced". some history, i dont drink that much booze. maybe 10 drinks a year. i stopped even that this time. ZERO booze. they ran a bunch of additional blood test, that as far i can tell look like they are looking for Cancer markers. (fingers crossed)

i just met with a Dietician a few days ago. we are assmuming it is NAFLD at this point while we wait for a few more blood test results to trickle in. i eat clean now. not much bread, no white rice, no noodles, and i havent had red meat in 6 weeks. i also started jogging every morning before work. in 6wks, i dropped 10 lbs. i have been asked to drop 10% of my body weight. no drinking, and mind my food. smaller meals.

i am like you. someone tells me i have a damaged liver, it will feel a tiny bit sore. so i think i feel something. it is more than likely in my mind. other things not polite to discuss on a public forum are better indicators. hahhaha... my doc said 25% of USA population has a fat liver. doenst make it right, and it can lead to Cirrhosis. i refuse to stay the course. but my brother did say he would donate a lobe. Fatty liver is the leading cause of liver transplants in women in this country. (paraphrasing my doctor)

good luck.

oh, my doctor handed me off to a Gastroenterologist. Just saying.

boom said:

oh, my doctor handed me off to a Gastroenterologist. Just saying.

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Yep. Same exact thing that happened to me, being shown the door to a Gastro doc. And I too had a Fibroscan done. It came back within normal range.

*shrug*

I agree that the 'sore' feeling in the liver is in our heads. Mine went away once I stopped obsessing over the whole thing. I have anxiety and I'm also a bit of a hypochondriac. Not a heavy-duty one, but enough to where if I feel some weird pain somewhere, a pain that's unusual or something I've never felt before, I automatically assume I'm probably dying of some weird disease. So then I go and make things worse by Googling symptoms, which my doctor told me I should never do, for obvious reasons. The internet can be a plethora of useful information -- but it can also cause you to drive yourself insane with worry, especially someone, like me, with GAD (generalized anxiety disorder).

Even my cousin told me, "Linda, for crying out loud, when you're feeling sick or you have odd symptoms, stay the heck away from the internet."

I really should listen to her more, as she's older and wiser. But I've never listened to anyone, truth be told. I'm as stubborn as a mule. Just like my mama was.

Thanks for commenting and I hope your blood tests all come back normal.

Linda, if you must go on the Internet for your symptoms - at least stick with a Medical Teaching Hospital/University! Try Hopkins, can't go wrong there. Enter John Hopkins, **relavent disease/whatever** for eg. John Hopkins Fatty Liver
It keeps you from going off on a tangent. I mean you still can't self diagnose but at least you won't have somebody screaming at you that you're going to die tomorrow if you don't eat 15 garden worms proven to have cured their giddy Aunt May.