I have had a long history of digestive issues, beginning when I was a young child. So I will not get into the full blown out story.
But in Nov. of 2011 I began having upper left abdominal pain right under my rib cage sometimes just barely noticable other times very painful and uncomfortable, the area even swells sometimes and makes it uncomfortable to wear a bra. I also started having severe diarhea. And was always tired. If I did not know better, I would have said it was my gall bladder but I had it removed a few years back.
Went to a GI doc and he did a colonoscpy and endoscopy and found nothing major. One rectal ulcer and some irritation thoughtout my colon. Did biopsies and all came back negative.
Did some blood work to rule out IBS and Celiac Disease. Which it did. CBC showed low potassium, which was not the first time it has been low, and I was already taking OTC potassium supplement. So he put me on RX strength potassium.
I then had a CT scan done which showed sign of fat on my liver and subtle surface irregularity that raised the question of cirrhosis.
So I then had an ultrasound done and more blood work. The ultrasound showed my liver to be slightly enlarged with fatty infiltration.
LFTs were pretty much normal except for slightly high UIBC and slightly low Iron Saturation.
ANA was negative. Actin Antibody was negative.
Mitochondrial Antibody was positive. Positive being over 24.9 and mine was 56.1
My over all Cholestrol was slightly elevated and my Trigycerides were significantly high.
My GI says all test show nothing significant and nothing to worry about, and just follow up in a few months, to recheck potassium and see how meds he put me on for diarrhea is working.
But I want answers! And think these results are significant.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Hi tigermom02,
I wish I had something useful to tell you. I don't know if you have PBC, but it sounds possible. I can tell you that in my case, I had several negative blood tests before I finally got a positive result for PBC, so blood tests can sometimes be wrong. I hope you get some answers soon!
Thanks. I am planning on trying to get second opinion. Hopefully a different doc will have some answers. I have done quite a bit of reading on PBC and I have several of the symptoms, so like you I think it is possible. Part of me hopes I do, because at least then I would have an answer to my health issues.