Morning nausea + elevated bilirubin

[MilwaukeeGuy2]

Just wondering if anyone else has had symptoms like this...  6 weeks ago I came down with what I thought was the stomach flu, always nauseated, didn't vomit much though, stomach felt really full and bloated. After the 1st week I went in, found out my bilirubin was 7.3 (normal is 0.2-1.0 I believe).  After further blood test, my bilirubin went down to 4.8, then 1.7, then 2.9, as of about 2 weeks ago. My nausea has slowly gotten better, even in the last week its gone away in the afternoons/evenings, where before it was coming back all day long.  Though there are mornings where its still bad and I have some dry heaving, but generally after 4 hours or so I feel much better.   I have an appointment with a GI doctor tomorrow, we'll see what he says.  Abdominal ultrasound came back normal.  

Strangely enough, drinking 7up and making myself burp in the morning seems to be the only thing that makes me feel better.  For whatever reason burping makes me feel better.  Doc gave me some Prevacid, though I don't really have heartburn, taken most of it, haven't noticed a real difference.  Still wondering what could be causing the bilirubin, whether its my liver or gallbladder.  Bought some ginger and made some ginger root tea this morning, had a fairly good day, was hardly nauseated, will keep trying it to see if it helps on a regular basis.  So has anyone had the same symptoms and gotten a diagnosis?  Know of any good things to take to help with the nausea?

[boron]

Elevated bilirubin is not likely to be from a stomach flu. It's more likely to be from hepatitis (probably hep A) or gallstone in the bile duct (but this later would go with strong colic pain under the right rib cage).

Hepatic panel (blod tests for hepatitis) would show eventual hepatitis.

Causes of elevated bilirubin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilirubin

[MilwaukeeGuy2]

I was tested for Hep A, B, and C and came up negative.  One doctor I talked to just to get some advice said I might have been tested too early, so I went to a free clinic to get retested, but they might have only retested me for Hep B.  Since the initial negative tests, they've run 3 different labs to check my bilirubin, I assumed they would check for hepatitis each time.

[boron]

Hepatitis tests are never performed as a routine, so they probably haven't done them together with bilirubin, if not specialy requested.

Hepatitis A is contracted with fecal-oral infection, mostly from children.
Hepatitis B is transmited by blood or any body fluid.
Hepatitis C is mainly transmited by blood.

Incubation period - the time that antibody, which are tested, appear in blood is at least 3 weeks
http://www.requestatest.com/hepatitis2.aspx

[MilwaukeeGuy2]

Went in to see the GI doc today, ran some more liver tests, not sure which ones though, I'll have to wait until they come back to see the results.  He considered doing another test, thought it had something to do an endoscope, but since I don't have insurance, thought I might have a CT scan instead, based on how the blood labs come out.  Gave me some Metoclopramide for the nausea, figured I'd try it tomorrow morning when I get up, when the nausea is usually worse.  I've heard it can cause restlessness or anxiety, which I've have to deal with before, but haven't had for the last week or so, so I'm going to try it in the mornings instead of evenings.  Will just wait until early next week to see how my bilirubin is, and whatever else might show up.  Forgot to ask him if I should be retested for hep A and C, am supposed to call him next week, will ask then.