Hope for some imput....Please - Liver & Pancreas Disorders Message Board

Heavensnorthstr · 09-24-2007, 06:35 PM

Hi, I am new to this entire board but I found it searching for ideas of what could be my husbands issue. Recently he went to the VA (he is medically discharged from the military) to have routine blood work done and find out about meds ect. well his AST and ALT came back high, how high well I dont know for sure since he didnt think to remember or write it down..........thats a whole nother story lol.........so he was sent to the VA hospital for a CT scan 2 days later. They did not give the results but we recieved a letter today in the mail for him to visit the GI/Liver clinic there in October. Since all this *and not knowing ANY of the details of any of these tests* I decided to review my husbands medical records from the military, I came across only 3 full labs where the AST and ALT were performed.

I must also mention that he is on antiepiletic medication, though the first numbers were prior to him being on the meds, which was not until somewhere around spring 2006.

His first test which was in August 2005 his numbers were
AST 52
ALT 85

April 2006
AST 44
ALT 98

Oct 2006
AST 83
ALT 153

My biggest thing, though I know it can be SOOO many things is more on if this should have been noted prior to now. Should someone have had a more extensive exam done on him in the military with the numbers what they were? I ask because I dont want the VA to bounce back on us and say we should have taken him to our PCP for these test and us have to pay. Considering his numbers were high in the military.

Thanks so much for anyone wiling to read all tha tand respond.

Lisa

ladyj2 · 09-24-2007, 09:11 PM

HI Lisa,
I'm no Dr. but I would think that they should have checked it back in 2005 when they found it. They apparently thought to do these tests within 6 mos of each other most recently so maybe they were taking a wait and see approach (the cheap route). I don't understand how the VA works but why would he also have a PCP if he gets his stuff done there. My father in law gets absolutely EVERYTHING done at th VA...there is no other Dr. to pay out of pocket to.
Like you said it can be many things, lots of times it is fatty liver and they say up to 25 percent of our population can have this. Usually a healthy diet and abstinence from alcohol helps this situation. You may want to surf the net to see if the medication he is on can cause elevated enzymes too. Good luck.

Heavensnorthstr · 09-25-2007, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladyj2

HI Lisa,
I'm no Dr. but I would think that they should have checked it back in 2005 when they found it. They apparently thought to do these tests within 6 mos of each other most recently so maybe they were taking a wait and see approach (the cheap route). I don't understand how the VA works but why would he also have a PCP if he gets his stuff done there. My father in law gets absolutely EVERYTHING done at th VA...there is no other Dr. to pay out of pocket to.
Like you said it can be many things, lots of times it is fatty liver and they say up to 25 percent of our population can have this. Usually a healthy diet and abstinence from alcohol helps this situation. You may want to surf the net to see if the medication he is on can cause elevated enzymes too. Good luck.

Thank you so much for your reply. He is only covered by the VA for the things listed on his medical discharge. Not any other care out side of that. For instance if he gets sick he would go to a regular doctor and not the VA. I have searched his epilepsy meds but he wasnt on them in 2005 so even though they can cause elevation that doesnt explain the original elevated levels. The tests that were done were to try and figure out his "fainting" spells which in turn we found out was epilepsy so they were not actually looking into the liver but I do think they should have seen it.

Were keeping our fingers crossed it is fatty liver. He isnt much of a drinker, never has been so abstaining from that is no problem for him. The diet would be a little harder, but oh well.

Again thank you so much for replying.

Lisa