mass displacing inferior vena cava

[jma1963]

After unsuccessfully trying to tone my stomach, having pain, mostly on the right side where my gallbladder scars are, and meeting nothing but more instructions to 'stick with my diet, keep doing the ab exercises, there can't be anything else wrong' attitude, I went to see about laser lipo. I was astonished when the dr. informed me he couldn't help me, the fat on my abdomen was so minimal he couldn't perform the surgery. He did tell me that he was almost certain there was something behind my abdomen wall. I now have had a CT scan, MRI which have shown 2 small nodules, approx. 1-1.5cm on the left lobe of my liver. A larger nodule, 5x6x6 cm is on my right lobe which is displacing the inferior vena cava. I couldn't get in to my local Internal dept. until the end of June, almost 2 mos. so decided to go up to Mayo Clinic since there was also a notation of a .8cm nodule in my left lung, posterior position. The tests also showed diverticulosis, which I thought I probably had by the symptoms but a dr. has never diagnosed. I would agree that some of the distension is from that, however, I am really concerned about the affects this displacement may be having on my health and in the future. I have slowly noticed my abdomen getting larger and at first did think it was from just gaining weight again after losing 40 lbs to control my Type II diabetes. But as I would exercise and the other parts of my body would tone and my stomach seemed to bulge more, I became disheartened. I seemed to notice a more rapid increase this fall and into early winter. I have had an acid reflux type of issue, horrible sweats, itching on my forearms and shins, a hiccup type of burp, depression, red, itchy eyes, rosacea, increased brown spots on my face, my blood sugars are creeping higher as are my triglycerides and cholestrol and blood pressure. I have been researching on the web and saw a previous conversation on liver mass that was started on May 10, 2002 by a huffy2002. The conversation went on between several different people and they all had the same type of symptoms and situations I am discribing. I have had my first dr's visit @ Mayo and was completely shocked to be treated as if I was wasting is time. He may be very familiar with a mass in the liver and I'm sure sees patients that are severely ill but I feel that is no reason to brush my issue off. He more or less said my distenstion was due to " extremely high triglycerides and cholestrols. Your diet is way too high in fat and you need to lose weight". I  was already well aware of all of those. When I asked about the pain, he attributed it to my Fibromyalgia. I was literally speechless. I'm sorry this is lengthy, I guess I'm still a bit in shock at disregard I was treated with. I did see in the conversations that several people mentioned bc use as a contributing factor. I am a 48 yr. old female and have been using bc for over 21 years. I'm curious to see what suggestions anyone has, especially with the displacement. I'm going up on 5/17 for an MRI @ Mayo as the dr. says the one I had sent up was not as clear as the ones they do there and he wanted it to confirm the mass was benign.  Thank you for any help


This discussion is related to liver mass ??.

[jma1963]

Thank you for your answer. I realize now my email question was a bit lengthy!!
Same diagnosis. I'm too fat. The nodules are benign, congenital, there are actually 5 or 6 or them,  we are to leave them unless they start causing issues. When I asked him what signs to look for he said "jaundice, yellow eyes". To me that's too late.
I plan on looking further. When I asked him about the displacement of the vein, he said don't worry about it. When I asked about the pain, he said I couldn't be having any, it must be from something else. He said I was getting fatty liver and I need to get that weight off right away. I do not disagree I need to get the weight off, I already knew that . My concern is if that much of my liver is taken up with these things, how can it function properly? Could that be the sudden on set of this pain I've had for going on 7 mos. now and these rising numbers. He really made me feel petty. I'm searching for other places to go while I diet and exercise. So far 3 lbs. in a week!!

[Sue949]

I am a 61-yr. old female.  I had a biliary cyst adenoma surgically removed from my liver  a
year and a half ago.  They could only remove 75 percent of it that was laying outside my
liver, as the other 25 percent was throughout my liver and places they could not safely remove.  I did not have any pain leading up to this but just had an increasing abdominal
area and high GGT levels ( a liver enzyme). Surgery was advocated because of the size
(24 centimeters).  No cancerous cells were found, although  with this cyst turniing into cancer
a possibility.  I have a yearly CT scan to check on it.  One year after surgery, the cyst grew
back to its original size.  At this time, unless I develop pain or infection, they choose to
just leave it.  My specialist assures me that this will not end my life.  I am not in any pain
but have a lot of uncomfortableness the minute I gain any weight around my middle.  I
guess this is just something I have to live with.  I know losing belly fat will help, but it won't
entirely alleviate all the symtoms, as this massive cyst pushes on all surrounding organs.   I
hope this helps.  I would be interested to know what you find out from doctors at Mayo.
I feel my specialist is one of the best there is in his field, so I don't plan to get a second opinion.