A Bit of an Update

Well, last week was busy.  I had an EGD, which was perfectly normal.  Then I had a liver ultrasound, also normal.  Good to know that I don't have an ulcer.  I guess the pain I have been having is from the hernia.  I wasn't sure because it was basically the same place.  
I don't know what is next with the liver.  I feel pretty sure that the reason my liver enzymes were elevated is because of my high Vitamin A but I will see what my doctor suggests.  I would like to wait a bit and then retest and see if they go down now that I have cut back on the A.
Still planning on having surgery on the 15th for the hernia but I'm not sure if I will back out.  I just don't feel good having surgery at this weight.  What if I lose more weight?  What if the anesthesia affects me badly?  
Been sad this week because I was thinking about an old boyfriend and decided to Google him.  I have looked for him before  but not really hard but this time I really searched and found out he passed away about 3 years ago.  For some reason this affected me more then I would have thought it would.  We had such history and I always thought I would talk to him again.  It never occurred to me that he might have passed away.  I have been thinking a lot about things, reliving so much of our past.  Everything reminds me of him.  On Friday I ran out of gas and I was stuck on the side of the road and I realized it was just down the street from where I met him.  I can honestly say he was the first man I really loved in a real way.  Sad because I had been married before that.  Our relationship changed my life and set in motion many life changing decisions nearly 25 years ago.  Even though things didn't work out with us I never regretted my decisions.  It was the first time I found out that just because you love each other doesn't mean you should be together, if that makes sense.  We stayed friends for many years but I intentionally lost touch with him when I moved.  I didn't give him my new number.  I knew, for many reasons, that it was time to let him go.  But I always felt that some day we could be friends again.  Now it will never happen.
It felt good writing that because I haven't talked to anyone about this.  I have been keeping it inside because I'm not sure what I can do.  It looks like he was cremated so I can't even go to his grave to say good bye.

 I'm sorry to hear of your loss.  It's really tough to find out such bad news.  {hugs}

Tonya

Thank you, Tonya.

Interesting but calming findings. In addition to your vit A how much dry D3 do you take at one time?

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. It must be difficult. Sounds like you were connected in ways we don't really understand for him to be on your mind like that.

--g
 

I was taking 50,000 iu of D weekly but since my last test that showed my D level dropping something like 17 points in a week I upped it to 3 times a week.

 That shouldn't cause your high AST or ALT to be elevated. It will be interesting to see if stopping your A will bring the ALT down.

glad you could write your feelings to us.  I'm sorry for your loss and I know it is hard to find out about it now, years after it happened. 

Glad the test came back normal.  If you do your surgery on the 15th, we can be buddies.  My procedure is the 15th.  Although I really don't want to do it, I want it over so I can get on with healing.  I know you feel the same way.

I am sorry for the loss of your ex , that must be really tough for you.  About 15 years ago I found out that my first boyfriend from high school had died and it hit me really hard - I still miss him so much.  We were friends from childhood and lost touch after college when he got married and moved away.

As far as your liver function tests, I am not sure if your vitamin A can make them that high.  Considering your serum vitamin A was normal - you had 2 different levels taken and if I remember correctly, one was high and the other was normal.

My serum retinol has been high since April or May.  The range is 38-98 and my level has been up at around 110-119 and won't go down.  I cut the dose to 3 times per week at first instead of daily and then when that did nothing, I  stopped it altogether.  I just had labs done in January and it is still 119.  Doesn't make much sense since I havent taken any in months, I was even off my multi for 2 months due to having to stop all supplements prior to my kidney stone surgery other than the b vitamins and iron.  So, no calcium, multi, D, selenium and had already stopped
the A.  Nothing seems to dropping my A level, even without the multi.  I was severely deficient at first causing me to need the high dosage.  My liver function tests seem to fluctuate - one time they are normal and the next time they are high but only at around 60-80.  My Endo just repeated them last week because they were elevated but nothing like yours.

have you seen the liver specialist?  There are lots of special liver tests that they can do plus possibly a CT scan to see if there is any scarring or a fatty liver - worse than before.  Most of us have one preop but once we lose the weight, it tends to go away but ifyou still have one, depending on how bad, it can cause very high levels - something I believe called NASH - a form of cirrosis.

Have they tested you for hepatitis?  Mononucleosis?  There are other autoimmune tests that are liver related

I am waiting to hear from the liver specialist.  I was told they needed a few days to review my records.  My liver ultrasound was normal, no fatty liver or anything visible.  I think my next step would be a liver biopsy if they decide to go that way.
I did have tests for hepatitis.  My A and B were both positive because I had viral hepatitis as a teen and I have gotten the hepatitis B vaccine in the past because I was working in a doctor's office so the positives weren't surprising.  Actually, they do 2 different tests for both the A and B and one was positive and the other negative.  The hepatitis C test was negative.
I know she ran a bunch of autoimmune tests and they were all normal.  The only test that was even slightly off was the ceruloplasmin, which was 20 with a range of 20 to 60, so not abnormal but close.
The only other test that was off was the Vitamin A test.  I am hoping it's due to the Vitamin A.  I really hate the idea that it could be something else but I guess I will find out.  I see my PCP on Tuesday and I'll find out what she thinks, then.  What is funny is the Vitamin A test is one of the tests I have been asking for for the last 6 months and they all kept telling me it was unnecessary.  Maybe if I had it earlier I could have caught it going up and adjusted my intake accordingly.