Follow up CT scan

Contrast CT shows liver cysts smaller than previous study. Scheduled for repeat liver enzymes and liver ultrasound in August. Poss biopsy depending on results.

I am sorry to hear about the liver issues. I have been worried for a couple weeks, but if a biopsy is necessary you are catching this very early with no large tumor formation. Hamstrings and broken bones are a pain in the butt.....but the liver is essential for a quality life. I look at this as the glass is half full, and you will stay vigilant in regard to the same. Have they run any liver function blood tests?

2seaoat wrote:I am sorry to hear about the liver issues.  I have been worried for a couple weeks, but if a biopsy is necessary you are catching this very early with no large tumor formation.  Hamstrings and broken bones are a pain in the butt.....but the liver is essential for a quality life.  I look at this as the glass is half full, and you will stay vigilant in regard to the same.   Have they run any liver function blood tests?

Yes....they were abnormal. The weight gain from the Celiac disease could have triggered the liver cysts and elevated enzymes. Most people have substantial weight loss and are malnourished with celiac......lucky me....I gained weight. Not fair!

My athletic daughter with Lupus has put on forty pounds since the second baby and she cannot get rid of it. However, I am starting to thin out and I can tell you with the liver, you do NOT want to see too much weight loss. It has been horrible for my daughter who was athletic and slim to carry this weight, but our concern is more on the adverse impact of Lupus on the kidneys. Please do not be afraid to go out of area for a second opinion. A second opinion saved my life, and I am a real advocate of the same.

I'm glad they appear smaller... but I really hope they don't have to biopsy.

I guess I'll put out my latest if you don't mind Joani. I began having more trouble with my arms (from my neck) again during the winter. I tried physical therapy, massage therapy, and now acupuncture. Nothing helped and the pain, numbness, and gradual lessening of coordination progressed. So last week I had another mri... the results showed bone spurs from my spine rapidly growing directly into the nerve roots. That is directly in the middle of the fusion I had c3-c7. I don't think that is going to be terrible... just go in there and grind em down. Sometimes it happens when they traumatize the bones like they did putting the brackets and screws in there. There are two bad, or worse, news... I'm having growth at c2 that is a narrowing called stenosis. It's basically doing what the original problem was lower in my neck. It's compressing my spinal cord again... though not quite as bad as before... by 40%. The problem is that it's growing rather quickly and it's extremely tricky to operate so high up. The strategy being to fuse the vertebra to the ones below. Tons of risk... but I don't really think I have a choice... just like last time. The other thing is they noticed a thickening of the lining in the esophagus. Not sure what that's about... they think maybe just reflux. They want to do a scope.

Hopefully the thickening is Barret's syndrome. Have you tried Nexium? I have Barret's syndrome as did my brother. He actually had surgery on his esophagus, but my doctors thought regular Nexium use would remove the thickening from Barrett's syndrome......the Nexium worked. I have not had issues for 12 years since taking nexium.....which is now over the counter.....just double the doseage per day to get to the prescription level, and you should see shrinkage in sixty days. However, do not ignore those signs. I am so sorry for both of your health issues....prayers to both of you.

The neck stenosis sounds diffucult...I hate that for you.

The endoscopy is easy....no prep. I have reflux and take Prilosec. The GE doc was questioning me when I first consulted with him after being diagnosed with diverticulitis. I really didn't think I had a problem he recommended the endoscopy first....showed severe GERDs.

Thank you for those inputs. I didn't think I had a problem either. I take a pepcid if I eat pizza or sometimes rich or sweet things... but I'd be surprised if that did damage. I always felt relief after taking the pill. Who knows... it's probably nothing.

I read today where the makers of many GERD inhibitors are going under the scrutiny of the tort community due to kidney disease.

Hope the diagnosis of Celiac is the cause of the liver issues, Joanie, and not something gone awry.

I have a friend who is wasting away with kidney disease and they cannot get to the problem. Yes, Nexium has been targeted by law firms for kidney damage, but that medication improved my quality of life, and knock on wood....no kidney issues yet. Do not ignore any thickening of the area above the stomach......I lost a partner to stomach cancer which he ignored the pain until it was too late...my friend is literally wasting away, and once more I have to watch somebody worried about me for the last eight years waste away and the docs are clueless and think it may be some rare kidney disease.

Medications bring on more problems than their intended use but also bring advantages that were not realized in the quest for the intended cure. It's a 50/50 sometimes.

My doc tried to put me on statins for an LDL of 107. I laughed and said there are too many reports that show that to be near optimal. She was obviously a doctor wined and dined by pharmaceutical reps so she had prescriptions she needed to push. I told her no thank you. I won't take a statin and I'll get my numbers in order through fresh food and exercise. She raised her eyebrow and tilted her head as she sat there in all her obesity.

Honestly, between the chemicals in our world and doctors who don't adhere to the Hippocratic oath - we're all between a rock and a hard spot. Be your own health advocate as much as you can.

I realize many on here are fighting disease and my prayers are with you. But for those of us who still have the time to take control of our health - as Michael Jordan said - just do it.

4 years ago I was not on any medication.

4 years ago I was not on any medication.


I think it has little to do with medications as much as a lifetime of environmental contact which we were not aware of dangers. I have no idea what is killing me, but with time, we may get answers. Vigilance and awareness are important. You must be your own advocate because nobody else really cares as much.

joani, how did you present? Your pain/symptoms to get the CT scan? Hope it all turns out good . . .

Joani and Pkr, wishing you both all the best and only wish you didn't have to be dealing with these disturbing issues.   May all turn out OK!

While we're talking about GERD, I had a bad case when we first moved here, though my stupid (at the time) doc didn't recognize it as such since I had no heartburn, but rather "head and neck symptoms" -- hoarseness, difficulty swallowing, feeling of something hanging in the back of my throat.   For weeks the doc and his staff kept trying to blow me off, insisting it was "only" post-nasal drip, just an after-effect of a case of bronchitis I'd initially presented with.  WRONG.  Finally I brought my husband with me to an appointment and that time the doc really paid attention to my insistence that something was seriously wrong (isn't that a helluva note, that there had to be a man in the room to get my issues recognized??).   So he referred me to an ENT guy who, much to my total shock, diagnosed it as GERD in about five minutes flat.   Turned out the bronchitis was very possibly occasioned by the GERD (due to aspiration of stomach acid - ugh), not the other way around.
I was first put on a proton pump inhibitor (started with Prilosec, I think, but ended up on Protonix) for about a year or two and symptoms had largely if not totally subsided, so I took myself off of that and began a regimen of Pepcid 20 mg b.i.d., and that has controlled the reflux just fine for years now, and I feel a little safer with it.
Needless to say, after that episode I found myself a new PCP.

That's informative Linda... Thank you. I think I'm going to cancel my scope appt and seek out an ent. Maybe it is just reflux... but I'd be surprised. I also take pepcid prn and have always felt that it was effective. Does anyone know what other things it can be?

knothead wrote:joani, how did you present? Your pain/symptoms to get the CT scan? Hope it all turns out good . . .

It was a followup. When I had a kidney stone in February  they saw liver cysts on the CT scan as an incidental finding.