Abnormal liver function test (please read)
Posted , 5 users are following.
I'm a 18 year old Male and last year I was in hospital for 6 weeks (long story short) they dont really know what caused it but they think it might have been an infection or rare virus but my liver and kidney function were extremely low but I've more or less recovered now but when I was at my outpatients appointment today they said my last blood tests from January were more or less okay but a few of the liver tests were like 1 point below what they should be so they did more blood to make sure it's still not like that. But I was just wondering is 1 point below what it should be significant? The doctor said if they're still the same then they want to do scans to make sure there is no lasting damage to my liver but if there is some damage what does that mean?
0 likes, 11 replies
lyn1951 kyle36591
Posted
My son also had something weird last year, he also was very ill for 3 months, spent about a month in hospital all up.
At first they could not figure out what was wrong with him, except his immune system collapsed completely, they put him in isolation room, even we had to dress in barrier robes and masks to visit him, when he recovered from that was discharged.
At home I was checking the printout we had been given of his last blood tests and his platelets were at 20,000, I looked up the internet, as I thought that is not normal, even the internet told me that, so back to regular GP that afternoon, he did another blood test, and again the following day another blood test, thank goodness he had some sense, his platelets dropped to 12000, that's low enough or very close to have a transfusion of platelets, re-admitted to hospital that night, the blood lab rang us after hours his platelets were soooo low, and told us take him to the hospital now.
I the end it was found he had a VERY NASTY dose of glandular fever, apparently only 5% of patients get as sick as he was with glandular fever, liver affected as well as other glands in his body, MRI's taken during time in hospital as they were starting to consider he had some kind of rare blood cancer.
Now this is where our GP gave us some advice, NO BEER or Alcohol of any kind, daily walks gently, do not go overdoing it, sleep as much as you need to, he did lots of that even after discharged from the hospital, lots of protein, meat, eggs, cheese.
Take a general multi vitamin every day for a few months until you feel better.
Yes he has recovered very well, with no apparent side effects, back at work now.
kyle36591 lyn1951
Posted
Oh my God everything you just wrote Is EXAXTLY what happened to me. I went to hospital with stomach pains and the did my blood pressure and heart rate and they were through the roof so they kept me in and when they did blood tests It showed an infection around the liver so they treated me with antibiotics for over a week and nothing improved so they did some scans and a camera up and down both ends but from the scans they found my gaull bladder was enlarged and so was my liver and spleen. After about 2 weeks I was just getting worse and my liver and kidney function dropped extremely low and so did my blood platelets and that's when they started to think cancer. By the 3rd week I had collapsed multiple times because of how low my blood platelets were so they decided to send me to a specialist liver unit in another hospitals intensive care and by then they were considering putting me on dialysis but that never happened. At that hospital they did a liver biopsy, a bone marrow biopsy and a lymph node biopsy and they all came back okay so that's when the cancer thing went out the window so they decided to put me on a high dose of steroids and that started to make my liver and kidneys work again and they also gave me a blood transfusion. By the 6th week they let me out and the only thing they could think it being is glandular fever but they're not sure at all they said it could have just been a nasty infection but yeah.
Also one of the doctors thought it was okay to discharge me after 2 weeks being there even tho they had no idea what it was and that just made me worse
lyn1951 kyle36591
Posted
get you local Dr to test you for glandular fever if it has not already been done, would have thought it would be one of the basic tests they would have done, but you can also get a false negative result, our son's tests were negative for the first couple of weeks, until your own immune system gets itself organised and starts to fight it that's when they can see your system fighting the virus rather than the virus itself as I understand it.
Sounds as though you had exactly the same as our son, same tests, haemotogist finally took over his care and has been following his blood tests for months now. He also took huge doses of steroids at one stage was on 120mg, our local GP DR nearly freaked when he first saw how much they had given him, but worked out apparently 1/2 mg per pound of weight is about right. They went a little overboard with all the biopsy's, but here in Australia in the public health system, they are very cautious before they spend tooo much of the public's money, they go with the drugs first, and he did show some results to the drugs within the first 48 hours, so we were told that ruled out the need for a biopsy but it came very close, his liver and spleen were hugely swollen we were told. He also had a lumbar puncture as one stage early on.
his symptoms started with blazing headache and sweating like I have never seen, even when sitting still. Hospital turned him away twice before they admitted him, GP was great with daily blood tests which showed hi getting worse and worse and the hospital taking no notice of GP's letter. GRRRR, I made a point of making a formal complaint, very senior staff of the hospital contacted me, we had a meeting, and they did agree that junior Dr's should have taken more notice of GP's letter. I can tell you if it had been fatal they would have been taking to lawyers.
kyle36591 lyn1951
Posted
They tested for glandular fever quite early on but it came back negative but then a few weeks later they did it again and it came back saying I've had it before but apparently most people have had it. Also I was throwing up multiple times a day for 4 weeks and literally eat nothing for nearly 3 weeks and then they tried to feed me through a tube but I threw the tube up in the doctors eye and I then refused to let them put it back In. Also not sure it your son had this but because my kidneys basically stopped working I had to have a cafiter and I ended up with 4 stone worth of fluid around my body and now I have huge stretch Mark's everywhere and its completely knocked my confidence but I guess I'd rather that than die lol. Also the only reason they did all them biopsys is because they literally did everything they could think of and still had no idea what was going on.
And did your son have any lasting liver or kidney damage or did his liver and kidney not get that bad?
kyle36591
Posted
Oh and did the doctors ever explain why the glandular fever actually cause all this? I've tried to do research on it but because of how rare it apparently is I can't find much on it lol
lyn1951 kyle36591
Posted
lyn1951 kyle36591
Posted
kyle36591 lyn1951
Posted
lyn1951 kyle36591
Posted
Oh I can relate to that, you reminded me he was like a bottomless pit, or hollow legs while on the steroids, even though I fed him well, never enough food, hungary the whole time.
Hope the Dr's didn't try to withdraw you from the steroids tooo quickly, long slow process for our son, his system di not like giving up the strong dose of those steroids, took close to six months to step him down only adjusting his meds every two weeks during that time, he would get dreadful cramps in his hands of all places, fingers turning backwards over his hands, Dr's at hospital amazed when they saw an episode, amazed he wasn't dis-locating his joints so severe, and nothing they could do for him, and him screaming in pain as hands and wrists turned inside out.
kyle36591 lyn1951
Posted
pippa58442 kyle36591
Posted