F2 fibrosis, scared

[Chimoss]

Hello,

New here.

Start by saying I was a very heavy drinker for around 15 years.

In 2017-2018 I started noticing some itching in my upper right quadrant, which progressed to pain as time passed. The pain soon became constant and got worse. I knew what I was doing to my body, and was too scared to go see a doctor and so I just continued drinking. Last December I noticed that the pain was now in my mid/upper right back, as well as my URQ, and if I put any pressure on my right front or side, I could actually feel what I assumed was my liver pushing into my back! That in itself was not painful, but a strange pressure feeling.

Fast forward to April of this year, I quit alcohol and in July finally went to the doc. Told him everything, did all the lab work, got an ultrasound. Doc said lab work looked fine, except for severe anemia. Ultrasound showed enlarged, fatty liver and enlarged spleen. I was sure I had cirrhosis (spider veins on cheeks /nose, redness on palms, enormous stomach, and I quite thought I was somewhat yellowish but my bilirubin was 0.4, so that's just my color, and I'm obviously a worrier!). Doc sent me to a gastroenterologist, too expensive to do the camera down the throat (I was worried about varices, doc wasn't tho but wondered if I had ulcers as I had pain on LUQ as well), but the gastro did a FibroSure blood test and that came back with a score of 0.37 - (0.0-1.0, 1.0 being cirrhosis) which is apparently F2-F1 (predominantly F2, but F1 possible), and the necroinflammatory activity score was A1/A2 (I assume that measures inflammation?). So, damage.

Let's see, I was quite overweight last year at 17.8 st and have managed to get down to 13 st. in a year's time. Obviously still have more to go. The pain over my liver is mostly gone. Changed my whole diet to a mostly Mediterranean diet (although rough right now with holidays!), and def no alcohol. Still a smoker tho, working on that.

I do still experience some pain in the liver area, it can be quite uncomfortable in my back especially. I def notice it more if I go off my diet too much (sugar, carbs). Can those foods be inflaming my liver to the point that it's painful?

Is F2 from alcohol reversible? When I asked the doc, he said, "I don't know anything about that. The goal is to not let it progress." As it's been 7 months since I quit drinking, I hope every day that I will see improvement. And I have! But still feeling pain sometimes (not all the time anymore) and still being able to feel my liver in there if I apply pressure is disappointing to me. I don't expect to be perfectly healthy after drinking so much for so long (upwards of 15 units/day), but I did hope.

I'm worried that it will progress to cirrhosis. Doc seems to laugh it off whem I bring that up, saying fatty liver is manageable with proper diet/weight control. But that doesn't say anything about the fibrosis! He doesn't seem to know, and Im not set to see the gastro until next year! I know I brought this on myself, just worried and hoping someone can give some advice or has been in a similar situation.

Thanks much!

[Fibro2021]

Hello,I don't know anything about regression of fibrosis in ARLD but it is generally believed that fibrosis is reversible to some extent when the causative factor is eliminated. Also, in several medical articles on the toxic effects of drugs for the liver, it was described that the average time for histological normalization of the liver was about five years. As you can see, the recovery process is not very fast and can take years. You need to be patient and continue to lead a healthy lifestyle. There seems to be no alternative to this approach.

[kensimmons]

I am not a doctor but I have read online that early stage (one or two and you wrote that you have it at stage two) is reversible in a few years time if you maintain a health diet and absolutely zero alcohol. Getting up and about and not just sitting around all day helps as well.

For example here are posts on this same message board about this.

healthunlocked.com/britishl...

healthunlocked.com/fatty-li...

Please note than I am not a doctor of any kind and am not qualified to give any advice, this is just message board chatter and only a doctor can give advice. With that said, please start a good diet and I think you can do very nicely. Definitely stay away from the alcohol for a good result. Good luck to you!

[KillerT]

Hi, was your anaemia investigated?

[Chimoss in reply to KillerT]

Yes. I had very heavy menses when I was a drinker (I only quit in April), and just about 2 months ago that started to normalize. That along with iron supplementation - as of my last blood draw (1 month ago) I am no longer anemic.