I have had fatty liver for I long time but to be honest didn't really know how serious this could be as my GP never seemed to concerned ,my liver tests have been raised for a long time, only really discovering this now , was always told one test was slighty raised but now know it was three ,today I went for a fibroscan and was told I have scarring which was up near cirrhosis ,told it could improve with diet ,totally shocked and scared .
Does scarring mean cirrhosis already ,I wasn't given any numbers or other information and I'm not sure what to do.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated .
Thank you
Written by
jamie18
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Hi Jamie, welcome to the club of people who were never told how serious fatty liver could be. I’m sorry to hear your story. It’s so familiar.
I too have had fatty liver and slightly elevated liver enzymes for years. I also have insulin resistance and high cholesterol and BP which have been controlled with meds. Doctors never thought anything could be wrong until I had a CT scan for something else and they told me I have cirrhosis. To say it was a shock is an understatement. I was referred to a GI doc who basically just told me to lose weight. It’s pathetic how uninformed the medical establishment is about liver disease.
When will you get the numbers from scan? These can indicate the degree of fibrosis. Do they plan to do any more tests?
I have high cholesterol and high blood pressure ,underactive thyroid and a few other things going on all of which are making life very stressful.
The Doctor didn't mention giving me the numbers ,she just said they might see about seeing me sooner to check for any changes ,she just said it had progressed on and was nearly at cirrhosis to be honest she wasn't very clear.
I had a scan about a year before and was told fatty liver but her face told a different story today ,not sure what to do , is this reversible ?
If you’re not at cirrhosis yet, then YES it’s reversible. That’s why it’s important to know what level of fibrosis you have (F2, F3). The scan can give some indication of that. Did your doctor give you any kind of plan to follow (a diet or referral to dietician or meds to lower cholesterol etc)? I’m already at cirrhosis but if you’ve caught this early enough you can turn things around. Many people on this forum have done so. All the best, Anita
No plan or any advice except lose weight ,which I always try to do but my underactive thyroid has other ideas ,the Doctor stopped my statin a few weeks ago as he thought it was putting my liver blood results up ,not sure what to do about this .
Surely this can't be the level of help and explanation available ,just left to figure it all out on your own .
Hi all - just reading through this thread... the lack of awareness in the GP community is just shocking - I've also experienced it - and would be in far worse health had I not taken the initiative myself and done something about my liver disease... it's such a big problem these days and it's just going under the radar... so wrong... Mark
Yes. I wasn't told I had fatty liver for years so I wasn't told about how bad it is. I thought it was just my GP but your twos posts say it's not just mine.
I would have done things differently if I had been made aware.
Unfortunately the GP's (in my experience) have a very rudimentary knowledge of liver disease - I appreciate they are generalists and rightly refer to specialists but it just appears that the prevalence of FLD is massive - stuff I've read estimates that 1 in 4 people in the UK has FLD and 1 in 3 in the US ... it's bonkers ... and no-one seems to be even raising awareness. .. very much a silent killer...
Hi Jamie. I had a fibroscan about 3 weeks ago. I asked the nurse to write all my scores down. The CAP measures the fat in the liver. Top on this is 400 - mine was pretty high 316 out of 400 which means I have over 67% fat in my liver. Totally shocked.
The KPa measures the liver stiffness. I do have cihrossis caused by drinking apparently. Personally I don't think I drank that much but they base some of their interpretations on whether a person is a teetoaller, a very moderate drinker etc. I was a drinker - have had no alcohol for two years. I think they also look at your blood test results AST, ALT, GGT etc. & factor these in.
My liver stiffness was 16Kpa. It goes up to 75. So I'm 16 out of 75. As I was a heavy drinker this puts me in the F3/F4 category. Extensive scarring / cihrossis. Its irreversible. My fault as I drank too much.
The nurse told me I had s Child Pugh score of A - 5 points.
Hopefully you can ring and get your scores. If not, you should get them soon hopefully. There are charts online to check your scores.
Personally, i don't think I drank that much. I've been told before from ultrasounds that I have a fatty liver. I was shocked at the 316 score. I was always underweight. I'm 60 now and due to an accident in 2021, and medication I was put on I have put on 2 stone. Called pregabalin. I also tested recently as pre-diabetic by 1 point. I have never been above 8 stone 5 before but now weigh 9 st 12. My weight was always underweight at 7 st 11 to 8 st 5.
I have osteoporosis diagnosed over s year ago and the hospital dietitician told me I needed to put on weight. The pregabalin made me over eat so as said nearly 10 stone now.
I'm on a diet and have bought 2 books. The Mediterranean Diet. And another book fatty liver diet.
Not sure if I have helped at all here. Hope all goes well for you. And I would ring and get your scores over the phone if you are worried.
Hi Jamie. I had a fibroscan about 3 weeks ago. I asked the nurse to write all my scores down. The CAP measures the fat in the liver. Top on this is 400 - mine was pretty high 316 out of 400 which means I have over 67% fat in my liver. Totally shocked.
The KPa measures the liver stiffness. I do have cihrossis caused by drinking apparently. Personally I don't think I drank that much but they base some of their interpretations on whether a person is a teetoaller, a very moderate drinker etc. I was a drinker - have had no alcohol for two years. I think they also look at your blood test results AST, ALT, GGT etc. & factor these in.
My liver stiffness was 16Kpa. It goes up to 75. So I'm 16 out of 75. As I was a heavy drinker this puts me in the F3/F4 category. Extensive scarring / cihrossis. Its irreversible. My fault as I drank too much.
The nurse told me I had s Child Pugh score of A - 5 points.
Hopefully you can ring and get your scores. If not, you should get them soon hopefully. There are charts online to check your scores.
Personally, i don't think I drank that much. I've been told before from ultrasounds that I have a fatty liver. I was shocked at the 316 score. I was always underweight. I'm 60 now and due to an accident in 2021, and medication I was put on I have put on 2 stone. Called pregabalin. I also tested recently as pre-diabetic by 1 point. I have never been above 8 stone 5 before but now weigh 9 st 12. My weight was always underweight at 7 st 11 to 8 st 5.
I have osteoporosis diagnosed over s year ago and the hospital dietitician told me I needed to put on weight. The pregabalin made me over eat so as said nearly 10 stone now.
I'm on a diet and have bought 2 books. The Mediterranean Diet. And another book fatty liver diet.
Not sure if I have helped at all here. Hope all goes well for you. And I would ring and get your scores over the phone if you are worried.
Hi Norman. I was told I had a fatty liver in May 2021. Then I had an accident and fractured my back and my femur in July 2021. I ended up in a & e and tested positive for Covid in a & e. I was put into a room on my own. They operated on my leg that day 19th of July 2021. I went into a coma 2 days later and ended up in intensive care for several weeks I was told I has hepatic encephalopathy and that I had decompensated cihrossis whilst in hospital and that only 20% of my liver worked. While in intensive care I developed severe jaundice and ascites too as well as pneumonia twice. I was on a ventilator as well. I don't remember any of this as I was in a coma. I came out of hospital after about 2 months and was put into a nursing home to get my walking back. I saw my hepatic consultant in November and my decompensated liver was after 4 months compensated. I had never had ascites or jaundice before. In my hospital notes it says I was admitted into hospital with hepatic encephalopathy. Not the case. I was fine when I went into hospital.
I am trying to find a link between covid and why my liver deteriorated like this in such a short space of time. I nearly died twice in hospital. The first time both my kidneys and liver started failing. The second time it was pneumonia.
I asked for the fibroscan as I saw on this website were others were having this done and I had never had this done before.
I do NOT KNOW WHY I WAS NOT OFFERED THIS AND HAD TO ASK TWICE FOR IT. ridiculous in my opinion. My gp tells me i don't have cihrossis. My hepatic consultant says I do. The fibroscan I had done confirmed this. F3 to F4. Cap 316. Kpa 16. Child pugh A.
I haven't had a drink since I went into hospital in July 2021.
At the moment I'm working on getting my liver fat down.
My hepatic consultant has said to me that she "doesn't know how much Covid played a part in this".
The Child-Pugh score is a system for assessing the prognosis — including the required strength of treatment and necessity of liver transplant — of chronic liver disease, primarily cirrhosis. It provides a forecast of the increasing severity of your liver disease and your expected survival rate.
It’s also referred to as the Child-Pugh classification, the Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) calculator, and the Child Criteria.
What is a Child-Pugh score in liver disease?A total Child-Turcotte-Pugh score of 5 to 6 is considered Child-Pugh class A (well-compensated disease), 7 to 9 is class B (significant functional compromise), and 10 to 15 is class C (decompensated disease).
Hi, the British liver trust website has a section on nafld, fatty liver, they have diet and exercise advice. Please try to reverse your fatty liver, I've had a liver transplant due to NASH cirrhosis, advanced fatty liver disease and I don't want anybody going through what I have, I had no idea until I vomited up nearly all the blood in my body.British liver trust also had a nurse led helpline you can phone.
My goodness you have been through so much ,thank you for taking the time to reply ,I am going to try really hard to turn things around ,just hoping its not to late and I will call the helpline .
Hi Jamie, Wow History repeating itself with GPs not understanding or giving information when needed, I had a liver scan 11 yrs ago, GP just said "you have a fatty liver" that was it, nothing else added to it..11 yrs later (January of this Yr) had blood tests for something totally different, bloods came back with concerns for my liver, was appointed to the hospital, Fibroscan, Liver biopsy, MRI scan I have F4 NAFLD due to medications, HBP and Colestrol I was shocked and numb. I decided for myself (not for everyone to try) to find an alternative My Consulate knows all about my med changes, he said I still need to take my Statin daily and I can take paracetamol for pain as I suffer with fibromyalgia also.. My diet has changed and I've losted 1st 3ibs so far (another stone to go) I'm slowly getting my head around it all.. I don't look or read about the bad things online that could happen, I'm just looking ahead and when I go for my next check up in October hopefully things will have improved.. I just wish I'd been informed 11 yrs ago by my GP how bad things would become and maybe it wouldn't have got this far.. All the best with coming to terms with your Diagnosis and I hope all goes well.
I feel so stupid for not doing more ,my son had an accident seven years ago and now has a traumatic brain injury and I have just being trying to keep going .
We are in the house all the time as he can't go out much so I have not been active and that combined with thyroid and fybromyalgia are not a good combination.
Well done on your weight loss and for being so good at making changes.
I have no ongoing appointments or doctor to follow up with and a lot of weight to lose.
To add to this I have just realized my 23 and me genetic report says I have a gene for AAT deficiency and a gene for haemochromatosis so I have been up all night reading things and scaring myself.
I wondered about taking vitamins but didn't know if it was ok.
Please note that the British Liver Trust does not recommend the use of any homoeopathic or herbal remedies for those with any liver problems as these may damage the liver and lead to severe illness.
For more information on this subject please visit the following page on our website:
Bless you, you have an awful lot going on in your life..Ask if you can go on a RESUS clinical Trial, I was asked straight away if I wanted to go on one..I go to QMC in Nottingham..This way I get to know more in depth at the end of the 6 mth trial if it has improved..I'm on a trial drug or Placebo?? So come October I'll know if its improved..I was told to only eat chicken and fish, plus healthy veg,fruit etc..I have a very sweet tooth so I make alot of healthy oat cakes and added coconut, nuts, cranberries etc to take the edge off..they take 5 mins to make and 12/15 to bake. Consultant as now said I can have beef once a week for iron..plus all wholewheat pasta/rice..its these little changes that have just drop the weight off, I still have good sized portions..(I love my food)..I've brought a BP machine and it's dropped loads..take a deep breathe stop reading the worse..this group has a nurse support if you need it..take care x
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