Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong?

Can YOU help?


Other information

• I have not been in a position where I have had my drink spiked.
• I do not take any recreational drugs and have never done any.
• I do not/have not ever smoked.
• I do not take the contraceptive pill.
• I do not drink excessively and my monthly consumption of alcohol would have to be less than 6 units (2/3 small bottles of cider)
• I am not depressed/suicidal and did not try to commit suicide by taking paracetamol/aspirin.
• I do not generally take other forms of medication herbal/prescribed or other. (I can remember the last medication that I took, - a piriton for the itching before I came to hospital, a nasal spray to counteract what I thought was the beginning of a cold and an anti inflammatory (Ibuprofen) to counteract the swelling as a result of the itching. (All of which were taken AFTER the initial symptoms had occurred.)  
• I do not eat shellfish usually, though I do buy small prawns and have prawn cocktail jacket potatoes.
• I have not been exposed to anyone with liver disease and there is no history of it in anywhere in the family.
• Though I travelled to Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) in January, I did not pick up any exotic diseases and this is not a result of anything that I have picked up as nothing has shown up in my blood.

n.b Just as an after note – it has been noted by several different people on different occasions(including nurses and two doctors) that I appear to get less yellow towards the end of the day: my theory is that I am drinking and eating so I am pushing things through my system and the yellow fluctuates.

If you know or have any idea what this is, please please could you let me know because no one here has a clue!  

My doctors are going a little crazy with my case and am now in the Royal Free hospital in London. I am in a specialist liver ward and they don’t know how to treat me because they don’t know that the cause is.

Please pass this onto anyone who may be able to help me because I cant be the only person in the world to have this happen to them!

Thank you very much!

Miss K Glastonbury (aged 21 years)
London
UK

[IAmTheWalrus]

Less yellow during the day ---- If you are jaundiced from liver problems, perhaps exposure to the sunshine during the day would lessen that and make you look less yellw in the evening. Wait, you live in London, what am I thinking! :)  Sun lamps are used on infants with too much biliruben for this reason.

Hepatitis A and B are much more common in S. America than in North America or Europe. Hep A is particularly easy to get, I am told. You can pick that up like the flu if you have not been vaccinated. B is a little harder to get, but is often transmitted sexually. It can also become a chronic infection and be harder to get rid of. There is a vaccination for both A and B.

Hep C, on the other hand would require you to be exposed to live infected blood, and that would have to contaminate directly into your blood. Typical routes of infection are unclean or unsterilized medical or dental quipment that becomes contaminated, IV punctures for drugs or catheters with unsterile equipment (not common in developed world), IV drug users communicate this disease between themselves through unsterile injection procedures. Hep C can be difficult to treat, but not always. There are simple tests to rule out or identify all the hepatitis viral infections. Hep C will often not manifest an accute phase. Symptoms like fatigue and liver problems can hide for decades before being exposed.

Perhaps you were exposed while in S. America. This can be tested for, but there needs to be a period of time first for the antibodies to show up. Both of these forms of hepatitis can show up with acute symptoms early on. They are often resolved naturally, but the patient needs medication and sometimes hospitalization to protect the liver.

What is the score on your blood work? AST, LST, biliruben, GGT? These things are typically used to identify problems with the liver.

I think after examining your blood work and conductiong the right tests they should be able to identify or rule out any kind of hepatitis. That might leave those strange tropical diseases and parasites we've all seen on National Geographic (I hope not).

At your young age, if you really suspect a hepatitis infection, I would get it diagnosed and treated by a liver speciallist. It could be nothing so serious. But check it out for peace of mind.

Best wishes,
Brent

[jmjm530]

Try posting your question to our resident Doctor, you never know.
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/show/272

Just one suggestion -- it appears something is missing from the top of your post which makes it a little confusing.

You might start by saying that you are experiencing yellow skin your doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London don't know what is going on.

[IAmTheWalrus]

You definitely need a doctor (which I am not).  After getting the first part of your post, I can see you have really been through an ordeal!

From your description I would wonder if you are/were in the acute phase of a hepatitis infection. You say that it was ruled out. Were viral RNA tests done or just the tests for antibodies? I know it can take some time for the antibodies to appear after an infection.

I hope the doctor on the expert forum here can help. Better yet, I hope your local doctors can provide the answers. Perhaps I have tried to "be a doctor" here, and shouldn't have. I hope nothing I have said is wrong or misleading. If the liver specialists are stumped, then a lucky guess by me would be just that: a lucky guess.

Hope to hear back that you are doing well.