pain in liver

So I am having consistent pain where my liver is.  I have Hep C, am on currently on treatment (Interferon/Ribavirin) and while I did not have cirrhosis when I had the biopsy, it was a 'grade 3' inflammation.  My question is: does anybody else experience this?  It is becoming very annoying and they doctor prescribed tramadol but it doesn't seem to work.

[Bali05]

How do your LFTs look like ?

Is your liver enlarged ?

Did you get your gallbladder checked ?

[wwoodle]

Had this for over 30 years.  I do indeed have pains.  Sometimes I can tell when there is swelling going on...sometimes I get sharp stabs.  I've had some doctors tell me this is impossible...I've also had a lot of hep c patients they have pain.  I believe the hep c patients since it also happens to me.

[EMVF]

Yes my gallbladder was removed in September (this was when I got the Hep C, from blood transfusions after I had internal bleeding in my liver.)  I don't know if it is stll enlarged, but I know that it was a grade 3 inflammation when I had my biopsy in October.  My LFT's are always slightly elevated (they kind of go up and down.)  Currently doing the riba/interferon treatment.

[Mollyrae]

Sorry to hear that you contracted the Hep. It is very rare to contract it that way in this day and age. Have you thought about legal action?  To this date, this should not be in the blood supply. I'm very suprised.

You will experience pain on and off in the liver area. Sometimes you have more inflammation that other times and this can produce an achy or painful liver. Sometimes taking too much medication can produce pain too.

I'm not sure what can be done about it. Some Doctors are leery of prescribing meds due to the liver function.

Take care and hope you feel better soon.
Mollyrae

[EMVF]

Thanks Mollyrae,
To answer your question about the way I got it: Yes, I am taking legal action which is something I have never done before.  The hospital and Red Cross have been notified.  The reason it was able to be proven from the blood transfusions is because I had been tested for it (luckily) 10 days before my surgery/internal bleed and had tested negative.  Then when I was sent down to Mayo after, for what seemed like not recovering normal from the surgery, they told me that I had contracted Hepatitis C from the transfusions (had to have 4 of them.)  Unfortunately this contribues to my "Why me?" pity parties that I throw for myself on a weekly basis.

[nygirl7]

Please EMVF don't let my parents or coworkers know this fact because I said I got it that way (transfusion) although I could always say it was back in the 80s or something!  ;)

Your liver shouldn't really be causing you that much pain.  Did you mean stage 3 or grade 3? Big difference. Mostly they say there are no nerves in the liver to feel the pain - I never had liver pain before I knew I had hepc then I had it all the time. But I"m a hypochondriac and probably got it from poking myself over and over again wondering if I could feel it was so damaged.

Alot of the 'liver' pain on treatment is from gastro related things like IBS.  Did you ask your doctor about that?

[Mollyrae]

nygirl7:

It's a proven fact that you can have liver pain. When the liver is inflammed, it causes the nerves around the liver to suffer therefore causing liver pain. Many ppl that suffer this disease do have pain in that area and it can be achy or severe. It all depends on the person. It's great that you have not had to deal with this pain. It can be very uncomfortable.

Thanks
Molly

[EMVF]

They said I had Grade 3 (inflammation) with no cirrhosis based on my biopsy.
When I express the discomfort to my hepatologist, they seem confused too, although they have decided to run an ultrasound so we shall see.

[merryBe]

tramadol raises liver enyzmes considerably. there are safer choices.
I take small doses of oxycodone when I cannot take the pain, or lay on my side.
Used judiciously, this only raises my number slightly, compared to tramadol which gave me a four fold increase.

[Mollyrae]

I agree that Tramadol raises liver enzymes and should be closely monitored when taking this particular drug. I too take Oxycodone in small amounts to help with my pain.

EMVF: Have you thought about seeing a Pain Management Specialist. They are very familiar with various pain meds that are easier on the liver like Morphine or Methadone. Both of these are "Natural" pain relievers not synthetic.

My best,
Molly

[nygirl7]

If you are only at grade 3 you shouldn't be having such tremendous problems - definitely continue to look and find out what is going on. I was Stage 3 and honestly.......with all that inflammation never felt any substatial pain, except when I poked myself a few hundred times that is.  I'm a wierdo!