Chronic Hepatitis C - Please Help!!!!!

Can some one please explain the severity of this liver & Gall bladder biopsy and diagnosis to me? ; this is my mothre's result
Sections examined from the liver tissue reveal Linear core of Benign Liver parenchyma exibiting complete loss of normal lobular architecure by thick fibrous bands. The liver parenchyma is in the form of regenerating nodules. The heptocytes show micro  and macro vesicular steatosis. There is moderate acute and chronic inflammatory cell infiltarte in the portal and periportal areas. No evidence of granuloma or malignancy is noted. Sectiosn from Gall bladder revela corss sections of the gall bladder wall exibiting focally denuded gall bladder mucosa with preserved papillary architecture. There is chronic inflammtory cell infiltrate in the underlying lamina propria and in the fibromuscular layer. The fibromuscular layer shows Fibrosis and Thickening. Congested Blood Vessles are seen in the subserosal Area. No evidence of Malignancy is noted.
Diagnosis: 1) Liver Biopsy: Chronic Hepatitis C with Moderate Choric Active Inflammation ( Grade III) and Cirrhosis (Stage IV)
2) Gall Bladder: Chronic Cholicyctitis with Cholelithiasis.

[cuteus]

if you check the janis7hepc.com site you can get  a secular explanation of the biopsy results. Of course, you have to wait for the dr to explain things to your mom, but it looks like she has advanced liver disease. DO you know if they used the Metavir scale? it sounds like it. SHe is stage 4 of 4, advanced damage.  SHe needs to treat her hep c to prevent further damage.   DO go to the Janis site, it is a great place to get things explained in a manner you can understand. I am sorry you and your family are in this situation, but there is a hope for a cure. Does she have a good medical team yet?

[NYgirl]

I'm sorry to hear that your mom has had such bad news but she is very lucky to have you helping her with it.  That is so important - support for the family member.

It does sound as if her liver damage is quite advanced.  There are other people on this forum who have advanced damage in different degrees.

I am treating currently and find it quite do-able.  I hope your mom has a good medical team helping her...that is so very important.

Best of luck

[friole]

I also am sorry to hear about your mom's diagnosis.  Cuteus gave you a great place to start your research.  She will need to get a few more tests run to determine genotype (type) of the hepatitis C and the viral load (the amount of active virus in her system). Can you tell us how old your mom is and if she has a lot of symptoms?  

The scarring (fibrosis) to the liver is advanced, but if the hepatitis C is treated, it can be arrested or reversed. She also has fatty liver (steatosis) which can be cause by drinking. If your mom does drink, she may still be increasing the damage to her liver.

Please have some hope.  There are members of this board that have had very advanced liver disease and are better now.  

frijole

[Forseegood]

You gotten some good advice, one good thing also is that sometimes, a verdict of cirrhosis isn't always as bad as it sounds, I have friends who've had it for years, (one girlfriend 9 years in stage 1, cirrhosis has stages as well) and while it's not good, my point is it doesn't have to necessarily be a death sentence, and like Jim said, she could potentially reverse some damage with treating.

Could you by any chance tell us her age, length of infection (if you know) and lifestyle? if you can't that's fine too. Best to luck to you and your mom.

[jmjm530]

Your mom is a stage 4. The good news is that many stage 4's have treated successfuly and if successful, the damage can often reverse somewhat. The bad news is that she probably has to start treating pretty soon.

Given the results of her liver biopsy, I strongly suggest she see a liver specialist (hepatologist) as opposed to a general practioner or even a GI. Hepatologists are generally found in the larger teaching hospitals and ideally they are affiliated with a good liver transplant center in the statistically unlikely event your mom will need one down the road.

All the best moving forward.

-- Jim

[Ayesha]

Thankyou for all your support, i have been feeling fairly depressed all this while because i dont want to be a bystander and watch this disease take the best of her. She is 58 years old and i think acquired the disease about 15 years ago in a surgery. There was no way for screening blood for this virus in Pakistan back then. it became active i think after 5 years of surgery. She was administerd with Interferon but the treatment backfired,she became irritable, had blisters in her mouth till her throat and started having blackout, they gave her 14 injections , i think they were giving her Roboverin too ( i hope i spelt that right), if the treatmnet went on longer she would have died. Alas! the doctor was horrible!!. Anyways...she she went to States in 2002, when the doctors here had told her she needed a liver transplant ( with out a biopsy!!!) , when she went to States and went to a doctor there, he said things were pretty much still in control. Interferon was out as she had sufferred but she started this herbal traetmnet with a drug called 'Milk Thistle' and has been taking them since, she is alos using Homeopathic medicinces. She recently had her gall bladdr removed because of the stones on 30 Nov 2005. Lately i have been noticing that she has weakness spells, i got very scared yesterday when i came in to see her and she was almsot unconscious while holding the phone. She has been a normal house wife  but with extra extra extra amount of work , as the house is huge and in addition to that my grandmother is not well. I got married last year and try and do as much as i can. her legs are restless and she has lost her appetite. I want to knwo what happens now? where is this going to go? Please help....Thank you

[cuteus]

she needs to get on treatment, and be monitored carefully by the hepatologist. It sounds as if she might have had untreated anemia the first time. She needs a good medical team to help her get back on treatment. In many individuals, it will progress into end stage disease. Don't wait too long to get an evaluation.
good luck

[Ayesha]

She is sufferring from Abdominal pain and fevers now adays, in addition to this there are also weakness attacks...why is this happening? Please tell me what kind of a diet should she be on? she loves cheeze and peanuts and all the dry fruits, what about that? i think she cant have any spinach or apples as i understand because i read in one of the comments that she was suffering from some iron thing. Please help.

[friole]

I read your post on top about the genotype test.  Yes, it is a separate test and needs to be requested.  It is not part of the normal blood work.

I think Cuteus is right about trying to find a teaching hospital and getting your mom back on treatment for Hep C.  Please take some comfort in knowing that the treatments now are better and easier on the body than they were 15 years ago.  Not that they are a piece of cake, but they are somewhat easier.  If, as Cuteus suspects, your mom had untreated anemia, if she treats now with the help of blood boosters, she might see a remarkable difference.

By the way, I am 58 years young, the same as your mom.  My liver damage is not very severe, but my age is not a detriment to treating.  I am sorry I am not knowledgeable about the liver friendly foods.  Perhaps someone else will come along and address that

Kathy

[Forseegood]

Hi, sounds like she needs a liver friendly diet, a good place to go for this info is http://www.liverdoctor.com/  she's got some good stuff on diet, etc. Hope this helps you and your mom is feeling better. When you say "weakness spells" can you elaborate a little? what are some of her other symptoms? if you don't mind. Thanks! Oh yeah, and have a happy holiday, try to do nice things and keep a positive attitude, great for your mom if she can do this as well.

[Ayesha]

Well when i say weakness spells i mean that her BP will suddenly go low and her body temprature will becaome 97 degrees Celcius, its as if she falls in very deep sleep instantly and then we have to pat her on the face to keep her awake. i just talked to her today, she said that last night when my fatehr took her weight it was 139 lbs and today in the afternoon when he took her weight again it was 149 lbs. she says her stomach feels very tight and bloated, i understand that this is due to water logging, so then my father gave her medicine. her mouth is dry most of the time and she alos is suffering form shortness of breath. why is happening? thankyou to all of you for being such great help :-)

[Ayesha]

Well when i say weakness spells i mean that her BP will suddenly go low and her body temprature will becaome 97 degrees Celcius, its as if she falls in very deep sleep instantly and then we have to pat her on the face to keep her awake. i just talked to her today, she said that last night when my fatehr took her weight it was 139 lbs and today in the afternoon when he took her weight again it was 149 lbs. she says her stomach feels very tight and bloated, i understand that this is due to water logging, so then my father gave her medicine. her mouth is dry most of the time and she alos is suffering form shortness of breath. why is happening? thankyou to all of you for being such great help :-)

[Ayesha]

My mom went to the doctor, she had an ultra sound yesterday and the result reported that the paranchyma was course....my father is consulting a doctor who said that my mother must eat alot of food...she must must not keep an empty stomach...i am trying to undertand why the doctor said she shoudl have alot of protien...doesnt protien breakdown into ammonia..

[Forseegood]

Hi Sweetie, wish I could be of more help, but this stuff sounds like it should be looked at by a good hepatologist, and I'm anything but...please let us know what's going on with your mom, what the docs say, and maybe put it in a higher thead, I try to look for threads that are a bit thin, etc. it's okay to do that. YOu don't have to necessarily start your own. Good luck to you, please be well.

[cuteus]

you might want to post your new questions in a more recent thread, since people kind of forget to look in the old threads after a while.

I hope your mom gets the help needed