LIVER PAIN

[pln]

I hope this is not a dumb question but I would like some feed back, I have been feeling ( know it is there ) my live more on tx It hurts sometimes. Is that normal? I find ouy my blood work today since the DR cut my riba hope my hbg has gone back up so we can up the riba again, I will post my findings later, Thank-you.PLN

[sfbaygirl]

Thanks for the tip about putting Mr. Brian on my chart. I monitor myself now, when I drive. I KNOW when I am not safe. That would be just one more thing to keep me from going out--not having a driver's licence!

Thanks!

[mikesimon]

I just wish someone would cite a source - an article or study or a published opinion - where it suggests that response to TX is sometimes, even rarely, the cause of liver pain. Everything I've ever read states that it's probably caused by inflamation which causes swelling that results in discomfort.
Andrew Mason, MBBS MRCPI
Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
December 2002

Question 1a
What causes the Upper right quadrant pain that so many of us have?

Answer
We think that it may be due to an enlargement of the liver.

Question 1b
Is there anything that can be done to help this pain (Liver)?

Answer
Occasionally some get relief from laying on their left side.


Thomas Shaw-Stiffel, MD
Medical Director,
Living Donor Liver Transplantation
Univ of Pittsburgh
Medical Center - Presbyterian Hospital Center for Liver Diseases
March 2003

Question
What causes the Upper Right Quadrant pain that so many of us with PBC  have.  I know the liver does not have nerve endings but the pain is very real.

Answer
Many patients with other liver conditions especially hepatitis C complain about this. Perhaps it's due to stretching of the capsule or outer lining of the liver and that might be the case in PBC since most cases of PBC and other cholestatic disorders have an enlarged liver.

I asked my liver transplant surgeon about the idea of the liver retructuring itself causing the pain. He just shook his head and laughed and said "some doctors will say anything - it's from swelling". Can he be wrong? Of course he can. Do I think that he is? I seriously doubt it but if it makes patients feel better it probably is okay to believe it. I just can't find any evidence of that theory anywhere else but "my doctor said" and if I could find something I'd certainly reconsider the idea notwithstanding my surgeon's take on it. Just refer me to a site if there is one.
Mike.

[Kalio1]

We did site a source, our doctors. People don't really demand studies from their doctors with something like this. The doc says "that pain could be due to your liver healing" you don't say "doc, got a study to prove that?"

[mikesimon]

Yea, that's what I thought.
I do want to clarify: Nothing I've said was meant to implie or suggest that I believe or my surgeon stated that the "discomfort" that many of us experience pre-TX, during TX or shortly after TX means that TX is not working. I had it before, during and for a short time post TX and I achieved SVR in 2004. So I don't believe that the discomfort means that TX isn't working but rather that the liver is exerting pressure against the capsule due to swelling which does eventually resolve with successful treatment.
Mike

[mikesimon]

No we don't say that to our doctors but many of us research what they told us because, believe it or not, they can on rare occasions be wrong. And almost invariably, if they are correct, there is some corroborating evidence in the vast amount of information that can be found on the internet. I haven't been able to find anything that even remotely suggests your doctor's view and I would expect that if it is true there would be something there. Mike

[Kalio1]

You didn't site a study either, you just posted a cut and paste of a question and answer session. Healing on any part of our bodies is often painful so I don't get what the big deal is. It isn't like it affects tx decisions, it is what it is. Some experience it some don't. My  liver never hurt at all until I was half way thru tx. and that is why it came up in a visit.
I DID atually find it mentioned in a paper I read once somewhere along the  line but I haven't relocated it. I figure why bother, it is a distinction without a difference.