How to threat Fatty Liver condition, or to find help

[ckbuzin]

Hi! I am a bit scared of my condition. It all began two years ago when I was working and suddenly a pain in the lower right part of my abdomen begun. In the beginning, I thought that was appendicitis, but the pain (like someone is inserting a sharp knife) is more likely in the upper right on the abdomen. I had a lot of nausea, and some vomiting. To make the things worse, it becomes bad when I was doing a temporary internship in a college overseas, in Europe. Fortunately for me, in Europe, the health system is a little bit better, and they found out that I have fatty liver. Despite this, the symptoms could be gastritis, so I took medicine for gastritis. When I was back in USA, it becomes worse over the time - and since I don't have health insurance, I ended up in a charity clinic. They still gave me medication for gastritis, I went better, but the pain the upper right part of the abdomen persists. I took several blood exams, and they only find out until now that I have high cholesterol. They made another scam in my liver and they confirmed the diagnosis of fatty liver - but I have no clue on which stage is it. I have normal skin, no white stools, and my urine seems normal - a little light, but ok. My belly is bigger than normal and I have a small swollen spot just over the liver - it's possible to see through my skin. I did more blood exams in the past week, regarding liver enzymes, but I didn't receive my results yet. I have some nausea sometimes, and the pain now is sharper, but not constant - sometimes I didn't feel anything. I am trying to do a diet, but with a lot of food in the market, I don't know how much carbohydrates I need to take to not get over the limit - I heard that I need a low carb diet, but it's very hard to find a food with 0 carb... Does anyone have suggestions or what kind of exam do I need to ask the doctors in the charity clinic to do next? I also needs suggestions of carb limit per day... if it is possible.

[nash2 Partner]

Hi Ckbuzin

Not a fun road to be one. The first thing you need is a diagnosis. It sounds like you may have a liver problem but you would ideally see a hepatologist for that. They can be hard to find but most primary docs know little about liver disease. You were told that you have a fatty liver but you need to know just what that means as by itself it isn't very informative. The key fact you want is how much fibrosis you have and a Fibroscan can tell you that if you can find one. In all cases, you will be advised to eat a liver friendly diet which is mostly vegan. There are different opinions but here is a link to a discussion about diet that might get you started and a link about liver disease to help you understand the possible problem.

Wayne

fattyliverfoundation.org/co...

fattyliverfoundation.org/li...

[ckbuzin in reply to nash2]

Many Thanks for your answer! Unfortunately is very hard to find a Hepatologist. I'm trying to find a Gastro to see if the things are working out for me. For now, I found out that eating fish is doing very well for me, and also eating kale is advisable.