Trying to make sense of 'diagnosis'

[Bryophyta]

Hi,

I found out this summer that sometime in my lifetime (61 yo) I contracted and healed from Hep C. I had no idea! My blood tests also showed elevated AST (39) so my new GP advised an abdominal ultrasound.

Results: Diffusely echogenic hepatic parenchyma likely representing chronic liver disease.

I had blood work redone in October & after being more careful about my diet, AST was down to 36. (ALT was 40 in June, 35 in October) My new GP who I loved told me she was moving and connected me with one of her colleagues (DrL) who I saw earlier this week.

In DrL's GP notes, I found this: 61 y.o. female who presents for follow up of steatohepatitis

I've sent DrL a message asking if that's NASH.

Meanwhile, I'm planning on tightening up my diet even more. I've been mostly vegan since 2007 but do like pastries & sweets! So I'm like - black bean burrito with brown rice, kale, & broccoli for lunch, apple danish for afternoon snack. That needs to stop. I'm often just too tired to cook though, so finding a balance between what's good for me and what I have the energy to prepare is tricky.

I work part time doing garden maintenance, about 15 hours a week of raking, mulching, pruning, etc. I would love to work more, but it just wears me out. I do yoga &/or take a 20-30 minute walk most days that I don't work but spend a lot of time on the couch because I'm just TIRED.

I'm trying to figure out what my actual liver diagnosis is (NAFLD? NASH?) and if that's why I'm so doggone tired all the time, or if that's just because I'm getting old

I've been reading through a lot of the old posts & links which are very helpful! It looks like I've missed out on the most active times here, but I wanted to reach out and say hello anyway. I hope everyone is doing well.

J. (Bryophyta)

[Jailgy]

NASH would be NonAlcoholicSteatoHepatitis. I think they just updated the name recently to MAFLD and MASH. Gotta put Metabolic in there somewhere.

[MINTVCX]

You wrote "healed from Hep C". The key question here how long have you been living with this? If 10-30 years it might have damaged your liver. How much it is hard to say. Good news if you are cured, no possible further impact from this factor. Maybe ask your Dr about this?

[Bryophyta in reply to MINTVCX]

Thanks, I had no idea I ever had HepC. I could have gotten it 45 years ago in college or 2 years ago when I worked at a high school or anywhere in between. There's no way at this point to know when I had it or how long it was active. No one ever tested me until this year. There is no active virus now, but I have the antibody. But yes, I've wondered if that contributed to the liver damage I'm seeing now.

[Bryophyta]

I also had frozen shoulder twice, for most of 2017 and again in 2021. Both times I went pretty heavy on the painkillers, especially Tylenol as ibuprofen bothered my stomach.

[Bryophyta]

Just heard back from my GP and I DO just have NAFLD. Hopefully I can keep it it that way, or even make it better at this point.

Thanks for your help - Happy Holidays to all!

[ThyroidDeb]

Happy Holiday to you and good luck!!