hi, i am in need of advice! my daughter had viral hepatitis a year ago when she was 2 years old. the doctors said her illness was a mystery, we have no idea how she got it and it was not any of the well known hepatitis illnesses. for the 1st few months afterwards she was extremely tired, slept alot more and clearly recovering - which i am told is normal. however, it has been a year now and although she has improved she is without a doubt still not back to normal - she is still easily tired and has less stamina. can anyone tell me if this is normal?? - a year later?? has anyone else experienced a similar thing??
hope someone somewhere can help!!

hi, i am in need of advice! my daughter had viral hepatitis a year ago when she was 2 years old. the doctors said her illness was a mystery, we have no idea how she got it and it was not any of the well known hepatitis illnesses. for the 1st few months afterwards she was extremely tired, slept alot more and clearly recovering - which i am told is normal. however, it has been a year now and although she has improved she is without a doubt still not back to normal - she is still easily tired and has less stamina. can anyone tell me if this is normal?? - a year later?? has anyone else experienced a similar thing??
hope someone somewhere can help!!

Hi,

I am confused by them calling it "viral hepatitis" but saying it was not any one of the well known hepatitis illnesses" Are they saying they have discovered a previously unknown hep virus?
This doesn't make sense to me.
We usually encounter hep a, b, or c, but d and e are known in this country, and others occur elsewhere. They are unusual but not "unknown."

Once you go back and find out which type it was (or still is), you can determine more, like, does this type become chronic?--this is your most important question.

For what it's worth, in hep c, youth is an extremely positive factor for complete recovery. Children who get hep c usually recover completely without treatment, except symptomatic relief. I have no idea if this will also prove true for other types. But let's find out what type dear daughter has or had, first, as the heps are somewhat different from each other except for all affecting the liver.


sean

hi, thanks for replying. apparently my daughters last liver function test was completely normal. the dr i saw on monday (she had a follow up apt) said that "viral hepatitis" is a term for the symptoms displayed in the liver, in the same way that "gastroenteritis" is a term for sickness and diahrrea and not the name of an actual disease, like e-coli would be - if u know what i mean? apparently what my daughter had was "non a-e hepatitis". she was acutley ill for a week a year ago - sickness, dehydration, blue lips jaundice, "deranged" AST tests (454, 1170, >3000), fluid around the gallbladder - to name but a few. the doctors told us that when she was admitted, her body was "shutting down". any advice??

hi, thanks for replying. apparently my daughters last liver function test was completely normal. the dr i saw on monday (she had a follow up apt) said that "viral hepatitis" is a term for the symptoms displayed in the liver, in the same way that "gastroenteritis" is a term for sickness and diahrrea and not the name of an actual disease, like e-coli would be - if u know what i mean? apparently what my daughter had was "non a-e hepatitis". she was acutley ill for a week a year ago - sickness, dehydration, blue lips jaundice, "deranged" AST tests (454, 1170, >3000), fluid around the gallbladder - to name but a few. the doctors told us that when she was admitted, her body was "shutting down". any advice??


Hi again, Adele,

It looks like good news to me. If her liver function tests are normal and she's not acting sick in any way, you should breathe easier now. As to the diagnosis strangeness, maybe you'd consult once with a gastroenterologist or hepatologist just to get more clarity to ease your mind, but it doesn't sound as if your daughter really needs more care. In my unprofessional, unqualified opinion, that is.

Children are more susceptible to some diseases, but also recover remarkably from others. Still not knowing for sure which hep she had, it does sound like your daughter's experience might be like that which occurs with hep c--children can get it, get sick, but recover completely in a majority of cases.

So, count your blessings, I'd say.

Peace


sean

thanks for taking the time to reply again. she has obviously made a complete recovery as far as her liver is concerned so i am not worried about that but she continues to be easily tired and has less stamina. we r wondering - if a year later she could still be fatigued due to the illness. any ideas?

When I was a child - in the early 1930's - I had Catarrhal jaundice which is now known as Hepatitis A. I took a few weeks to gt over it but there were not the tests at that time so the indications of the disease were yellowing of the eye whites and dark urine. At the same ime my brother had a less severe case. I'm wondering whether the doc misdiagnozed by saying it was not the 'A' type. I dont know if I was lethargic for any length of time as this all happened 60 years ago.
Muffins :confused: :confused:

thanks 4 replying. how do u catch the 'a' type ? and what r the symptoms?

also, the doctors r still unsure as to whether it was definately a form of hepatitis or if she has some sort of metabollic disease. they have done a lot of tests for metabollic illnesses and they have all come back negative but there r still some they have not tested for, for some reason. any one else had a similar experience??

is there anyone out there with any advice for me?? :(

is there anyone out there with any advice for me?? :(

Hi Adele,

I don't think anyone meant to leave you hanging, it's just hard to know what else to say. It seems very unlikely that your girl had viral hep in the usual sense that phrase is used, since if she did these are usually easy to test for and diagnose. There are non-viral heps. Hepatitis in fact is a genreal term, meaning anything that is characterized by an inflamed liver. So, there is auto-immune hepatitis, hepatitis resulting from a fatty liver, and so on.

The docs who are performing the tests for these and for the metabolic diseases they have mentioned to you are much more likely tohave useful advice than I am from a distance. Others may feel the same way, and therefore none have known what to post for your help beyond what we have done already.

I do feel for you. There is nothing worse than a sick baby. How is she doing by the way? She was improving when you last wrote.

sean

hi sean, thanks for replying.
they have discharged her. they r not doing any thing more for her, they have left us with unanswered questions - dunno if it was viral hep or a metabollic prob that could reccur. dunno if she has an underlying illness or not. dont know anything! she has good days and bad days, today for example, is a bad one!! we have days where she is so tired she just wants to lie down all day and other days she has energy but gets tired easily. she is lying down as i speak. i just wish we knew what is/was wrong, at least then i would know if it is over or if it will happen again.
thanks :)

This is just a theory, but I would think it will still take some time to regain her strength. I remember back when i was a child and would get the flu every year. Even when I was over the flu, I was still left rather weak and it did take some time to get back to normal. When my college daughter got meningitis it took her much more than a year to get back to near normal. If possible, I would want to get a little more information on what she had and test to see if it might be a chronic type, just in case and for peace of mind.

Alice

hi alice, thats interesting. according to the dr's she is clear of any actual illness now, so i dont think it is anything chronic. i have obtained a copy of her hospital notes in an attempt to work out why what happened happened. - it contains everything from a+e admission, test results and all the dr's notes. havent found much out from them tho. her AST ranged from 545 - 5000 during the illness, when it reached 5000 they gave her vitamin k which began to bring it down again. it is normal now and has been for some time. how long did it take for your daughter to get back to normal after meningitis?