i am a 40 year old female with severe gastric problem gastritis, gastroperesis, esophogus problems and i am in pain and at times cannot eat and have severe pain. food comes up withought nausea and i also have severe pain when lying down after i eat. i found out i had chronic hepatitis b and it is active but i don't know if that could cause these problems does anyone know? i also have a hemangioma on my liver diagnosed with a cat scan. i want to get well so bad but diet isn't even helping. can anyone give me any advice i sure would appreciate it. Thanks Ginny
Hi Judith - I, too, was diagnosed with two masses on my liver last February. I panicked, but I had a CAT scan done (with contrast). The radiologist said that they were of benign etiology. I have since had follow up ultrasounds at 4, 8, and 10 months with no changes in size of the tumors. (They are approximately 3 cm and 4 cm.) I have no other symptoms and my liver enzymes are normal. I have started seeing a new doctor and he has ordered an MRI next week, so the panicking starts again. My rational side tells me that the doctors were right 10 months ago, since there has been NO change in them, but I think its normal to panic. Do you have any other symptoms? Was this mass found incidentally? Let me know!
Judith, it will really depend on the rest of the tests the doc has done so far - what they say. Everything has to be put together to decide what the heck is going on. So panic is not an option is that's what you're leaning toward. There can be a number of causes of masses on or in the liver and they aren't all bad. If the mass is malignant, it's not great. But the good thing is the liver is able to regenerate to a large degree, and if the rest of your liver is in good shape, depending on what the actual diagnosis is, you may very well DO very well.
The ultrasound isn't the best possible test to give docs an idea of what's going on - the CT will give you and the doc a much better idea of what it could be and exactly where it is. Hang in there.