General introduction and seeking recommendation

[andrewax2]

Hello All,

First of, I want to say how grateful I am for this community. I wish I would have found it much sooner. I’ve been reading through the posts since I joined earlier today and have gained a lot of insightful information.

So a little background to my situation. I suspect I’ve had fatty liver for a bit now since my bilirubin and AST and ALT have come up elevated in 2018 and 2019 once or twice. I’m around 5’7 and usually weighted around 165lbs, just about 6lbs over my weight. I am in my early 30s.

When the covid lockdowns began, I barely went anywhere and my job where I moved a lot was removed from my daily activity. I gained weight into the 180lbs during this time.

By January 2021 I started feeling a numb pain at the bottom right side of my stomach and my doctor ordered blood tests where my ALT and AST was somewhere in the low 300s and 200s respectively. He was going to recommend a CT Scan, but I ended up going to a hospital a few days later since it didn’t get better.

At the hospital they diagnosed me with fatty liver, and gave me the “it’s not a big deal, everyone has this” statement (now I know from the fattyliverfoundation website and a few other locations is an incorrect statement).

After this, I followed up with a gastroenterologist after this who sent me to get an MRI. The MRI also indicated fatty liver and the gastroenterologist recommend to lower my sugar intake and to develop a healthier lifestyle.

I took his recommendation (but in retrospect, not as critically as I should have) and I lowered my body weight from 180lbs to 160lbs in a span of a few months. I followed-up and my AST and ALT had returned to normal for two blood tests.

About 5 months ago I had let myself slip a bit as things and got to around 167lbs.

In late January 2022 had blood test show my ALT in the high 50s and AST in the mid 40s. Nothing too terrible, but it reminded me of the liver problem and I decided to shape up again and not let myself slip.

As of February 2022 I joined a local gym, and re-focused on my diet. I’m currently the “healthiest” I’ve been in several years. I calorie count and I’m careful of what I eat. I worked my way from the 167lbs to 159lbs and I’ve been doing a lot of resistance training and cardio.

As of a few days ago, I ended up feeling the dull liver pain I hadn’t felt since January of last year. I was super surprised since I’ve been extremely careful. I set up the earliest appointment I could for next week with my Gastroenterologist (and also with another one that had the earliest in June so I can get a second opinion.)

Every time I eat, I get the dull pain to intensify a little, and even if I’m not eating and just sitting around I feel the dull pain ever so slightly.

I’ve read at least 20 websites and forums in this time, and became aware of “Fribonostics - Liverfast” from this website since I’m hoping my doctor can get something similar done for me.

I don’t want to go to the hospital since when I went last year it was a super expensive bill with nothing useful as a result.

I plan to wait until Wednesday and then the results of whatever tests I get.

At the moment I’m just confused as to how I could be as bad as I was last year when I made a lot of positive health changes.

What do you guys think of this constant dull pain I’ve had this week? As mentioned, I haven’t had this since last year. Usually I’ve had it come and go, but nothing constant. My fear is that it could have developed to cirrhosis.

Thank you for taking time to read my post.

Edit: I take a multivitamin, b12, and vitamin E since the b12 was recommended for weight loss and the vitamin E was recommended by my doctor for the liver.

[J5527]

I know what the waiting game feels like going it through it now myself. You've put effort into making lifestyle changes which is a positive. I say keep eating well , exercise and keep a positive mind set. Hope for the best. I know it's hard because every time I Google something basically says the worst but just keep your head up.

[andrewax2 in reply to J5527]

Thanks, I saw your post and I’m going to ask for an MRE it looks like it’d be very valuable for me. Hopefully it works out well for you too. I’m just extremely concerned over my constant dull pain this week, I haven’t experienced anything like this in over a year. Thanks again for your post.

[ThyroidDeb]

I would suggest having your doctor calculate the fibro blood work to start, that gives you a start point. I thought I was having liver discomfort but then one day I felt the same pain on the left side..turns out it was muscular from all the exercising I wasn't use to! Still have it sometimes or my ribs on the right side are sore for whatever reason. I lean that way more when I sit.

[andrewax2 in reply to ThyroidDeb]

Yes I’m meeting with my doctor tomorrow and have a lot to talk about thanks to this forum I learned about tests I didn’t know existed! I’ve had an ultrasound and a CT Scan done recently but apparently they provide little to no useful information.