Hi Y'all - A little help with this one would be very welcome!

[Paulbounce]

Hi to all on the forum.

I am a regular poster on the atrial fibrillation forum. The consultant I spoke to this morning said I have A (band) liver damage. I of course asked Doctor Google (He's full of doom and gloom). However, this seems to be the first stage showing a fatty liver. I asked what the prognosis was and the Doctor told me I have an 80% chance of survival for the next 5 years (if I continue being in A band).

OK, that's a one-in-five punt so the odds are in my favor. I also know that the liver is one organ that can repair itself. I want to give the 'A' band the boot and have made lifestyle changes to do this. A P45 is winging its way to it as I type.

The consultant wants me to go for a test for liver cancer test. So my questions are:

1. Is my liver likely to return to normal with lifestyle changes?

2. Is it possible being in band A could mean there is a chance my liver has a small tumour? I have the right positive mindset to deal with that - at this stage, it's likely to be fairly easy to deal with.

OK, thanks in advance for any responses and have a great day.

Regards Paul

[AyrshireK]

Hi Paul, welcome to the forum.

Has your doctor said this is cirrhosis when he's mentioned this band A thing. The only staging of liver disease that mentions A, B, C is the Child Pugh score for cirrhosis where band A is the least severe side of things and C the most severe.

If this is cirrhosis it would make sense of the need for a liver cancer screening test - only because a cirrhotic liver has a marginally higher chance of getting cancerous lumps and bumps than a non cirrhotic one - it is usually monitoring protocol in cirrhosis patients to have a screening scan (and AFP blood test) every 6 months so that any changes can be picked up soon enough for very effective treatments to be employed. [This doesn't mean you have a tumour just now but it's best to find out sooner rather than later].

Yes you can improve your liver and if fatty liver is the issue then you may be able to stop further progression and potentially reverse some of the damage done - whether cirrhotic scar tissue can ever return to 'normal' is doubtful.

Forget any talk of life expectancies that you see on line as they are nonsense - if people can make lifestyle changes and slow down, stop, reverse damage then you can live with and die with liver disease instead of OF it. My hubbies consultant frequently told us of patients he had who had cirrhosis for 20+ years and never died of it nor needed transplant. My hubby was first diagnosed with full on decompensated cirrhosis in April 2012 and it's only this year that sadly he got poorly enough to need a liver transplant but he's more healthy now (21 weeks on) than he's been in over 16 years (12 diagnosed).

The BLT website has good information about fatty liver disease and about how you can treat it with good diet and exercise and potentially stave off further deterioration.

Katie

[Paulbounce in reply to AyrshireK]

Hi Katie.

Thank you very much for taking time out of your day to reply. The information in your post is very useful.

You wrote...

you can treat it with good diet and exercise and potentially stave off further deterioration

100% agree. This is always advice I give to newbies on the atrial fibrillation forum. Eating a good diet can really make a difference. 150 minutes a week of exercise (walking for example) improves your overall health and reduces the risk of stroke and some cancers - for me it's a no-brainer to invest that amount of time to help improve your well-being.

I hope your husband continues to improve - it sounds like he's on the mend. Tell him to take time to relax every day - LSD is a good way to do this. It stands for Long - Slow - Deep breathing (not the other sort of LSD!) I posted about this and will link below. Try it as it really works. Watch the video (it's very profound) when you do LSD and ask your husband to do the same.

Have a great weekend.

Paul

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