liver enzymes, anyone????

We have all heard the saying...too much information. Well, that came back to bite me this week!!! My job requires I work in medical laboratories, traveling around the E. Tx. area assisting fellow lab techs with the instrumentation they purchased from my company. Anyway, almost all my customers have been following my weight loss and have been so very supportive, so when I was packing up to leave last Tuesday, my customer suggested they run some lab tests on me. They ran a huge number of tests, much much more then I had pre-op. Part of the battery of tests they ordered consisted of a CMP, whi*****ludes a panel of 16 different labs tests. Three of those tests are considered "liver enzymes" and all three were elevated, also my cholesterol was elevated. Not alarmingly elevated, just slightly out of reference range, high. After a day or so thinking about it I contacted my PCP and she saw me on Thursday. The last time I saw her was around my 6 week post-op and all my tests were very normal, but they didn't run the liver enzymes also my cholesterol had dropped down to 130. On Thursdya, she decided to eliminate hepatitis, saying it was more than likely "fatty liver". She also said that fatty liver is a very common side-effect of obesity and diabetes, and in some cases can turn into cirrhosis of the liver. She said I was doing the very best thing for my fatty liver...losing weight. She wasn't too concerned, said we would watch the enzymes, but she thought it was a transient thing and would go away. Anyway, finally here's my question...has anyone else had blood work that included the liver enzymes, and were they normal??? My doc also said "no alcohol" . So needless to say, I'm bummed out!!!

Yes yes yes....I too have very high liver function test results. I have had mildly raise levels for a few years, but since WLS they have risen sky high so my PCP refferred me to a specialist. The specialist says it may be due to a number of things and wants to rule these out before doing a biopsy as there are risks involved doing one and he says my body has been through enough at the moment. Firstly it may be due to the rapid weight loss Second I had MRSA infection in one of my wounds from WLS, so it could be from the WLS and the subsequent infection A result of being obese and diabetic (which should improve the more weight I loose) Or it could be an unrelated problem with my liver!! I am having an ultrasound and the tests are being repeated. He is hoping that the levels will come down by themselves. I go back to see him end Nov. If the levels are the same that's when he will do the biopsy to see what is going on with my liver. In a way, it's good news to read your post, because this gives me hope that it is just a consequence of WLS. I hope you get yours sorted. Keep me posted on how you get on. Ruth

Ruth, it is such a relief to hear someone else is experiencing the same liver thing. I didn't have liver function tests performed before surgery, so of course now I'm wondering what they were BEFORE surgery. Fortunately, the enzymes were just barely out of range, so I'm hoping when I go back to the PCP in October they'll be normal. You know, it would be interesting if there were some kind of statistics on the liver fcn tests on WLS patients because I would bet that not a lot of presurgery or even postsurgery people even have those tests done. It's possible that there are more WLS people out there with the same phenomenon and don't even know. I'm hoping that my PCP is correct, it will go away with weightloss. I've been thinking about the "no alcohol" limitation, I've decided that I'm still going to have my occasional glass of wine before I know about this liver thing. As I said before...sometimes too much information can be a bad thing!! Thanks for your response, it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one!!

I too had this problem a few weeks ago for my 3 month follow up. While doing the surgery, my surgeon did a biopsy on my liver because it looked funny. I have a fatty liver....Non alcoholic Steatohepatis for the long name. And yes, loosing weight is good for it. It's really the only cure. However, my surgeon also told me that it might get worse after surgery before it got better because of the rapid weight loss. However....I did not have my gallbladder removed in surgery....and they are closely watching me now because the high enzyme levels could also indicate that the gb needs to come out. You are not alone!!! Rachael

Thanks, Rachael...I'm not saying it's good to know there are more of us out there, but it's at least reassuring to know that I'm not alone and loosing weight is the answer!! I'm also glad to have a name...I may "google" to see what else I can find out. Then again, back to that too much information thing...I don't know if I want to know!!!