Hey PS,

You sound uncomfortable (understatement maybe)?? I’m glad you’re getting in to see your doctor. Hopefully you’ll be able to get to the bottom of this. It’s difficult to nail it down when it’s your digestive system. Sounds like a scan or two is in order. As 5 mentioned, the gall bladder is notorious for such things. Mine gave me fits, until I donated it to science. Let us know what you find out. I hope you get to feeling better quickly!

hi polosilver

i had one thing after another after tx; dont know why but it seems to happen to some of us.

a year later and i'm mostly back to where i was, still need lots of sleep and rest and easy exercise and careful diet; but doing well enough.

i have gallstones that cause trouble so the doc says we need to find a new place for that gallbladder to live outside my body. that will be in october.

i'm sure your liver ultrasounds would have shown if it was your GB but might as well ask.

my hubby lost a lot of weight during and aft tx. finally a year and a half later that has changed.

have they checked your thyroid and b12 lately?

my prayers are with you ,yes; and i trust this is your body trying to get well again.

Hey Polo, thinking of you now and tomorrow. Hope things get sorted out and keeping fingers crossed for you, all will be well. I know the worry monster creeps in. Try to slay him too. Keep us posted.

Say, I'm really liking that you are playing the dulcimer, I have been thinking about looking for a hurdy gurdy, but I really can't read music, and never did very good at the guitar. I wish you the best with you new instrument! How fun.

BB, Iris

I wasn't sure whether to post this or not, but I'm headed to the doctor tomorrow..primary care. I have not been feeling well. It seems when I eat anything my whole digestive tract is in an uproar and this is extremely uncommon for me. I've also lost more weight this last week and I'm eating 3 meals per day. Sorry to be Debbie Downer here. I am actually having concerns about what is going on. I also keep having major foot cramps and I'm drinking lots of water too. I go in and out of feeling fatigued and sometimes have a strange metallic type feeling (only way I can think to explain the feeling) and other stuff. 

Think about me tomorrow.

ps

Greeetings Canuck!

Superb to hear from you! Thanks as always for your words and long memory. You are right, this time last year it was the too many kibbles and bits story and it turned out to be nothing when I saw the vascular folks. I feel better about it all today...it sent me spiraling just a bit for a couple of days and now I'm bouncing back again. I'm having my reports since 2017 sent to the new doc and have decided I'll let it ride and then get the details when I see the doc...unless something alarming happens and it seems best to assure myself straight away. I don't want to stress about it too much since I have 6 weeks. 

Thanks for asking about retirement...I am sooooooo close. I took a couple of months off for vacation this year and right now I'm covering for my boss who at 50 has required a hip replacement. My plan has been to retire when she returns in 2 more weeks, but now I wonder if I should wait until I know the outcome of this current situation in September., for insurance reasons. Here in the US I will go on Medicare and a supplement as soon as I stop working. Got to think it through in terms of benefits.  Its not far away,  and I am stoked and ready to let the work life go..At this point I'm laying low and working from home and no travel. It's more like consulting about 15 hours per week, yet I am ready to be done completely with it and do my thing everyday all day. Yay!  I recently purchased a dulcimer guitar and am having great fun with it. Feels good to be a bit creative.  I hope all is well there in dear Canada. Thanks for you help here and assurance, it's just what I've needed. 

From one crispy-critter to another - hi ya!, and, I think "the report words " (how they are written), just need more interpretation - Tig is right, you need good comparables and better defining explanations as to what the words really mean and what the measurements are, in relation to what is seen on your current and past imagings before you can even get excited or worried about anything! -  (as far as "change") it may well be that nothing much, at all, has even occurred. It is a pet peeve of mine, "how" test results and "reports" are "worded" and the need for comparables and an experienced interpreteur, to put anything into perspective. (There seems to be good reason as to why they call these words "impressions"!) Really bugs me that from image to image these pile of different radiologists, who are tasked with reading the images, never seem to be on the same page, ya wish they would speak and act universally, they always leave shat out, note things you wonder about (ambivalent or unimportant info), they use different language from one another, and just to really confuse they often do not elaborate enough or do no comparisons to old images. Basically they leave ya hanging and wondering until you get to a specialist who then makes you feel like a hypochondriac for daring to wonder what the wording meant!

Try not to drive yourself screwy with worry while you are waiting to see the new gasto guy for deciphering and an explanation - none of it may be of any consequence. But, good you get to have an appointment with a new GI guy, always nice to have access to one of those guys, as an alternative to just running things by your GP. But, if you cannot stop yourself from fretting, then gather up ALL your old imaging(s) and written reports and go over them with your GP to try to see how much bigger your liver might be, even if larger than last time or of the past, it still may be of absolutely no consequence. I recall you had some other funny results one time, crispy-crunch calcifications I think, to which you had to go see a specialist, to which,  when you arrived there, he just poo-poo'd any severity of concern. Likely the same will happen here too.

Nice to see you again - yer like a tall drink of water! heehee Love that avatar. Are you working or retired now?? : )  C.

Wow Everyone --- the gang is still here and more...thanks for being supportive as I come crawling back, just can't stay away from you wonderful people here. How did I think I could continue without this support? It means a lot right now, since I don't want to talk about it in the house too much. I don't want to be a Debbie Downer...I'm usually upbeat and right now I feel a little low. I'm concerned about some weight loss , since I've been eating more food and still have a bit of brain fog that has returned the last couple of months. I probably just need to drink more water.. I will do that, just like my avatar!

ps

I hope its a finding that is ultimately inconsequential! I certainly do not have the medical expertise to comment but I know that I have wondered and worried about findings that I have read in my own reports. I am sending positive thoughts your way that this will not be a stumbling block for you! 

PS

Great to hear you are breathing again.  It's terrifying to hear about any abnormalities on a test.  Across the boards, we would probably all have them.  Good that Tig has some information on this.  Keep getting more.

Think positively but realistically  It helps to ward off the unnecessary worries that come with waiting.  It's hard enough to deal with the actual ones.  

Please do keep us posted.  

Oh dang, that's a long time to wait and wonder.

At least you will have copious time to get your ducks all lined up. Will be here to check in on you. Best wishes! Iris

good luck with this polosilver

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have 6 weeks to right down my questions..

I see nothing in the report that is alarming regarding your liver. Kidney's are known for forming benign cysts and they rarely present any problems. The calcifications are also common. Canuck likes to call hers, "crunchy bits" that haven't caused any issues either. We develop "stuff" as we age and fortunately they're part of growing up (old)! Once documented the doctors have a record and baseline imaging of them. Future scans will simply provide you and your doctor the ability to monitor what you now know. It's called peace of mind!

The mention of low density areas in your pancreas don't amount to anything IMO and not sure why they even mentioned it. Kind of sounded like they couldn't visualize it as well as they would've liked, but the pancreas is hard to see anyway. I would just write down your questions, much like we did before seeing our doc's ahead of HCV treatment. If you don't, you know you'll forget to ask the one question you wanted an answer for most!

Let me know what your doc says. Best to you as always!!

Hi Tig!

Thanks much for your response...I'm breathing again. Particularly because of the other wording here I didn't even see the 'no inflammatory changes' - humm. Thanks for waking me up on this. Is the other information in number 3 below, stating that everything looks status quo? 

ps

Hi PS,

I have to wonder what your liver would've appeared like on CT/MRI/US prior to this finding. It's entirely possible that you have had this for some time and it was never documented in previous findings. Things like fatty liver can cause inflammation, but I see no mention of that now or in your previous reports. I do see you were previously diagnosed with F2 fibrosis, has that been checked again? I believe if you had some increased inflammation causing this, you would likely see an ALT elevation and that hasn't occurred either.

I would try to get the previous results from any testing you had done by the last physician, just for comparative purposes. Radiologists and ultrasound exams will show actual measurements and you'll have a baseline figure that will tell you if this is new or pre existing.

Your current testing hasn't provided any evidence of tumor growth and no sign of ductal inflammation either (or anything else). There could be something related to your kidney function that has caused the liver to work overtime, which could be responsible for some of it. I'm just guessing on that.

What I would do, is present all of your questions and (if you can) get your hands on any previous test results, take them with you or have your new doctor request them ahead of your appointment. If this turns out to be something new, it's treatable and will be something your new Gastro doc should be able to resolve. I will tell you to not worry about it at this point, but that's easy for me to say, but I'll say it anyway. Your LFT's remain perfect, you lost a few pounds over a year's time and aside from your renal issues, you have had no problems. Even your CT shows no masses or gross inflammation, aside from the hepatomegaly diagnosis. What is responsible for that, remains to be determined. Remember this, Hepatitis C by definition is inflammation of the liver. This could be something you've had and until now went undiagnosed. Given time, this may resolve on it's own. Wait for your doctors impression and keep treating yourself well.

Hello Everyone -- 

I stopped posting here around first of year and felt great that I was HepC free!!! Unfortunately, now my ctscan this week shows that my liver is enlarged and was given Hepatomegaly diagnosis? The ctscan was for kidney cysts, which were found when I went through testing before Harvoni treatment in 2017. I had the annual ctscan yesterday with and without contrast and they called this morning to tell me kidney looks the same, but my liver is enlarged. So I'm scheduled to see Gastroenterologist Sept 12th for that. This was a slight shock...yet I had been wondering, I have lost around 7 pounds in the last year and frequently feel tired, but thought this was age-related. My AST was 29 and ALT 15 in my bloodwork from last week, so what's up with this new information?? 

My prior gastroenterologist has moved on and I will be seeing a new gastro doc this time. When I looked up the new doctor, she has med training from Stanford in US and U of Chicago which in US are considered very good schools, which is good news.

Has anyone else had this happen??? After HepC, develop enlarged liver? Anyone else have this?