ALT Levels 108

[chockingsutty]

After recent blood tests I was called back to Drs, he told me that ALT  level was at 108 & normal level is 40. I do drink but not heavy I take 300mg Allopurinol every day, I also bought over the counter Omerprazol 20mg from Spain which Ive been taking almost every since Oct 2011 I feel a little fatigued  and sometimes struggle to focus with blurred vision, apart from that I feel great. However I'm very concerned about my ALT level, the Dr is sending me for a scan, he's also (after examination) told me that my Liver size is normal. My wife bought me some Milk Thistle capsules to my liver recovery, should I stop taking any of my regular Meds, I have a very Healthy diet & like I've already said I'm not a big drinker.
What else can I do to help my condtion??
Regards Paul

[chockingsutty]

Dear Robyn.
So sorry to hear of your dear mothers condition & I had already said a prayer for Mom before I had finished reading your thread.
Now then Robyn, please check out on YouTube---Cancer Reversal Testimonies & Apricot Kernals Vitamin B17 , I've bought some for Mick but he's very sceptical, but when ones in last chance saloon you'll try anything.

Thanks for getting back to me so soon, your a real wonderfull careing person Robyn for taking time out with everthing thats going on in your life, & god will see that. Let me know what you think of the youtube thing its a real eye opener.

My Dr phoned me this eve, my wife answered the phone (I was upstairs) she shouted up & told me the Dr wanted to speak to me, My heat was in my mouth( my Dr has never called me at home) "Paul there is no need to worry I dont think its anything to worry about, however stop taking the Allopurinol it may be that" We,ll take some more blood in 2wks time but in the mean time we'll still go ahead with the scan.

Now I had blood samples taken from me on Fii 10/2/12, got them back today & my ALT has elevated to 114 ????????
He also agrees that its not the drink now, having just falling short of calling me an Alcoholic. I do have a drink but not that often.

Well Toodle pip for now, I will say a prayer for you and your family
every day my friend, hope to haer from you soon

Good Night & God Blees
Love Paul

[geminigirl1963]

Hi Paul!

So good to hear from you again!  I'm glad to hear your trip with Mick went well - I'm sure he enjoyed being able to get away for a while.

I'm sorry hear you've been having some medical troubles of your own - I read over your post about your liver function testing, but I'm afraid I don't have many suggestions for you.  I did do a little reading on the allopurinol that you take (my dad also takes that - he used to get quite a few kidney stones, but since taking it has not had a single one!) - and I did read that, while it is rare, allopurinol can sometimes affect the liver, especially if you had pre-existing liver disease.  It did not say what the chances are of it happening, but it did say that it was reversible.  HOWEVER, please do not stop or change any medications without first checking with your doctor - I only mentioned this so you could possibly bring it up to your doc as a possibility at your next appointment.

Do you take any medications that contain acetaminophen (also known as Tylenol here in the US)?  If so, I do know in high quantities, that can possibly cause liver troubles, especially if taken along with alcohol (even small amounts of alcohol)

I did also notice that allopurinol can cause fatigue, dizziness and blurred vision, so they may also be side effects of the med - those may definitely be ones that will dissipate or lessen as your body gets used to it - how long have you been on the allopurinol?  It simply said to get up slowly from sitting or laying down and being careful around machinery and while driving.

I've heard good things about Milk Thistle for many things, including helping with liver function, but again, please don't change anything without first checking with your doctor.  Even though milk thistle is a natural product, it doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't have its own side effects or possiblity of adverse reactions and it doesn't mean it won't interact with your medications.  So please do check with either your doctor or pharmacist about that before trying the milk thistle.  Pharmacists are actually great resources for that type of information (interactions and side effects of meds) - usually even more so than the doctors simply because that is their job - to know what meds effects are and how they interact.

Things here for me have been really up and down this fall and winter.   I've had several bouts of severe bronchitis that nearly landed me in the hospital.  I somehow managed to stay out of the hospital, but have had several rounds of antibiotics and steroids to keep my breathing and other symptoms under control.  My lupus and arthritis have also been very bad - fortunately, the steroids that I've had to be on for my breathing also help those conditions.  Then we got some really bad news regarding my mom a couple of weeks ago - she had come down with bronchitis around Chrismtas time like my entire family (out of 14 of us that were at my parent's house for Christmas, 9 of us were sick at the time!), but she never really got to feeling herself again - and then one night she coughed up a small amount of blood, so my dad took her to the Emergency Room of the hospital.  They did some testing, ncluding a CT scan and discovered two spots on her lungs, as well as discovered she had atrial fibrillation heart arrythmia (AFIB) and emphysema.  She was admitted and while in the hospital had a lung biopsy.  She was released a couple of days later.  The doctor was 99% positive it was lung cancer, however, the pathology report came back as inconclusive - so last week she had a PET scan (which is a specialized CT scan that specifically looks for cancer after you are injected with a radioactive material) - and the news was not good.  She does have cancer - it's stage 4 and in her lungs, her abdomen and her lymph nodes.  The doctor that has done the testing so far - her pulmonologist - does not know how long she has left, but he is calling in an oncologist and sometime in the next couple of weeks my mom, my dad, my sister and I will have a meeting with both of these doctors and discuss what options there may be. We do know she is not a candidate for surgery for several reasons - a) the heart arrythmia, b) the emphysema and c) the fact that it's in more than one organ.  So any treatments would me along the lines of chemo and/or radiation.  This has all come as a huge shock to my whole family - mom very rarely ever got sick - so rarely infact, that she did not even have a family doctor!  She went from being a 74 year old woman who was not on any medications with the exception of an occasional ibuprofen for a headache to being on a heart medication and two inhalers (with possiblitiy of more meds to come).

We're very thankful that, at least for now, she's feeling good and has a good energy level - however, we also feel that because she's feeling so good, before we got the final reports from the doc, it was giving us all a sense of false hope that his interpretation of what he had seen was wrong.  Unfortunately, it was not

Sooooo, of course, it's not been a very good fall/winter around here - a very sad one indeed.  I'm not worried about my own health issues, but I'm very worried about my mom and my dad.  They've been married for almost 55 years, so I know if something does happen to my mom, it's going to be a major traumatic event for my dad.  He has his own health problems and I'm really concerned that this added stress is not helping him at all.  I'm trying to be as strong as I can to be as helpful as I can to them both.

Please, if you don't mind, keep both of them in your prayers for me.  I'd greatly appreciate it.

Best of luck, my friend, and let me know what you find out about your liver testing - and of course, keep me posted on how Mick is doing.

God Bless,
Robyn