Enlarged liver/pain - Liver & Pancreas Disorders Message Board

CircusSquirrel · 07-07-2005, 02:30 PM

Hi, I have posted before on the digestive disorders board, but perhaps someone here can help me. I am a 30 year old woman, relatively healthy, just overweight. For the past several months, I have had epigastric and upper right quadrant pain. I have had multiple normal ultrasounds and all my blood tests are normal. No relief from the drugs like Prilosec. Sometimes the pain is so bad it requires meds like Vicodin, but usually it comes and goes and is a lower level type pain which ibuprofen helps. I was thinking that perhaps I had a gallbladder problem without stones, which seems to be relatively common. I recently moved and my new practitioner (a nurse practitioner, and in an Army hospital

) ordered another ultrasound. Well, I went to the doc yesterday for the follow-up, and she said my liver was very enlarged. I have to see a hepatologist now. The doc said that my gallbladder still looked normal on ultrasound and the hepatologist could order further testing on the gb but right now she wanted to make sure my liver is ok. My liver function tests were normal, the only test that was off was the BUN but she said that could be coincidental. I don't know what could be wrong with my liver. I don't drink at all, I don't have any risk factors for the common types of hepatitis (though I know a person can still contract it). I do feel tired a lot and I have unexplained itching and I am overweight. I also have been taking Zocor for 10 months. Anyone have any ideas?

FANNYLU · 07-08-2005, 07:19 AM

CircusSquirrel:

I have all the same symptoms that you have. Your case sound identical to mine. It took almost 3 years to find out what was wrong with me. I always thought it was my gallbladder and no one believed me. Well it turns out I have an enormous tumor on my liver. It started the Focal Nodular Hyperplasia thread. All my details are there.

Have you had a CT scan done. I had a HIDA scan and multiple ultrasounds and even X rays trying to find out what was wrong and nothing until the CT Scan. My liver was slightly enlarged by the ultrasound. Well it turns out that there is a tumor on the back side of my liver that is the size of my entire right lobe. It its 10.1 cm x 9 cm. I am due to have a liver resection to remove the tumor and some liver on July 19th. There is another smaller tumor that they are not going to remove at this time. The large tumor has been biopsied and isn't cancer they think. But my surgeon said that you cannot be sure until it is removed.

I don't want you to get upset and think that you have the same thing. But I had the same symptoms. I never was referred to a hepatologist until they found the tumor looking for stupid kidney stones. (That I also have). Just be glad that they are moving you on to a specialist now. It may be something very easy to fix.

Trust In God!

Fannylou

CircusSquirrel · 07-08-2005, 09:10 AM

Fannylou,

Thank you for your post. Thank God you were finally diagnosed properly! So you had the severe pain, too? That's the part that throws me off, it seems that many people with liver problems have mild to moderate pain. I haven't had a CT, the nurse practitioner basically told me that she is handing me off to a hepatologist because I don't think she knows what to do with me. She told me to stop Zocor and to come in if I became jaundiced.

In the meantime, I feel yucky about half the time. I'm going to talk to the referral people today and see if they have made my hep appt. yet. I will go read your thread. Does the doc think he can remove the tumor and things will return to normal?