Last Tuesday I saw the GI Doctor at Kaiser and was told that my all ready fatty liver is even bigger and now my spleen is large. I'm going in next Tuesday for a Liver Biopsy to clarify the Doctors suspicions that I may have a genetic desease called Hemochromatosis . Other tests will be done as well to find out if there is any damage done to the liver yet.
The reason why the Doctor suspects Hemochromatosis is because my FERRITIN levels for the past 5 years have been high. I also have fatty liver and must start loosing weight now. I'm also anemic.
Chills, nausea and bloody stools already went away? Do you think it could be an episode of food poisoning? The blood could also be from intestinal lymphoma (if liver and spleen disease is from lymphoma), or with unrelated inflammatory bowel disease (crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis).
Itchy skin is probably from bile salts depositing in the skin. This is due to liver disease (can't be said which exactly), where bile is not properly excreted into intestine, as it should be, but enters the blood and then the skin. You maybe also have dark urine?
Liver and spleen being enlarged at the same time is called "hepatosplenomegalia" (if you'll search). Main causes are:
- heart failure
- infection
- blood disorder, like anemia, leukemia
- lymphoma
Biopsy (sample of of those hyperechoic areas in the liver) should be made to get exact diagnosis. But I'm sure that even without that, just on the basis of blood tests (especially white blood cells) and visible changes in the liver, a doctor should tell you what he thinks it is. But biopsy is the proof.