Hello, this might turn into a ramble, so apologies in advance.
My husband was diagnosed with F3/F4 Bridging fibrosis about 6 weeks ago. It’s been a very emotional and scary few weeks made worse by lots of googling! I found this forum this week, and since reading, feel a lot more positive going forward.
The only thing that confuses me is, his KPA is 21.5 and his CAP 290, but the hepatolgist who scanned him, confirmed that it isn’t yet cirrhosis and can still be reversed at this stage - she actually said this on the phone when my husband rang her to ask about his scores because I was so worried after googling. He then got a letter through the post confirming what she said, and that it was F3/F4 bridging fibrosis. But everywhere I have read on here and google says that his KPA score should be cirrhosis?
A friend of the family also has a fibroscan by the same hepatologist specialist nurse the same week and it was confirmed she has cirrhosis and she has since been called in with further appointments made to best deal with it etc (I don’t know what her scores are) whereas my husband was just told he must loose weight and was recommended the Mediterranean diet and been told she will see him again in 6months to a year.
My husband does have psoriatic arthritis and for a brief period was on methotrexate which he was soon taken off as it affected his liver. Research on his current medication suggests no affect on the liver.
He is very 35 and overweight, carrying alot of his weight around his stomach and his BMI is definitely over 30! These are all things, I’ve read, that could affect the accuracy of his KPA score, which I’m praying means it is not as high (although I do understand this isn’t a guarantee) He also wasn’t told to fast before and grabbed a meal deal on the journey up which included sandwich, crisps and a bottle of coke - so again I’m praying that this also affected his score in being higher than it actually is. Also, a band 7 Radiologist told my sister in law who is a nurse, that he has no faith in fibroscans, and he prefers going by blood tests and ultrasounds - my husband has had these, and while they have said fatty liver, they haven’t indicated any fibrosis?
My emotions switch between being happy and although it’s still a very serious diagnosis, he is lucky to have caught it before it turned into cirrhosis to that she must have got it wrong and he must have it - and then I fall into a dark hole and search and search the internet in trying to prove it despite not even knowing what I’m looking at.
When my husband spoke to the hepotologist and questioned it, she said she followed the guide and that’s the bracket he falls into.
Is there anything else we should be doing? He has LFT,S and was diagnosed with a fatty liver back in 2019 (if not before) but that’s the earliest letter we can find , but we didn’t understand the seriousness of it tbh and before my husband was properly medicated for his arthritis he self medicated with too much ibuprofen. We have completely changed our diets, which was takeaways at least 4 times a week, around 2 bottles of full fat coke every day, white bread and snacks - just generally really really unhealthy habits and he has since lost 2 stones with probably about and 8 to go.
His LFTS are monitored by his rheumatologist who only in the beginning of the year said they are happy with everything and said they didn’t need to see him for a year (they were seeing him every six months) obviously for his pain too but they kept a eye on his liver too. He has another LFT in about 3 weeks, and I’ve never paid attention to them before tbh, but I will this time and ask for the results - is there anything I should look out for?
If you got this far, thank you
Compensated Cirrhosis Fibroscan
Results
Need suggestions
ALD and Fibroscan scores
