Liver values

[KarHart]

Ken and I went to Moffitt yesterday for a consult on the clinical trial drug, whether to continue it after the one week break. His blood work was very troubling. All his liver function tests were very elevated, big jumps. The LDH was over 2000 (high normal 613). He is going to start the clinical trial drug again for 21 days (if he can tolerate it) then he will have scans. The dr. seemed very concerned about these test results. He had never mentioned them before. I have been keeping an eye on these values and they all really went up. If anyone has any experience or knowledge about these different liver function tests I would really appreciate hearing about it. Anyone knowing what happens with liver failure please let me know what to look for. He is definately having some memory problems and confusion. He is not jaundiced. Thank you as always for all the support and care.

[Ann]

Karen...I have no expertise to offer you on this but do want to jump in here and let you know that you and Ken are never far from my thoughts and are always in my prayers. Please remember that I'm just a phone call away. It would probably take me all of 15 minutes to ever get to Melbourne. Please don't ever hesitate!!!

[pammie]

Hope you can find out some information to help him out. praying for you both. pammie

[Fay A.]

Some symptoms of liver failure are: bowel movements become very light or white; very sore in the area of the liver, along with the area feeling very hard; nausea; profound fatigue; cognitive deficits; hallucinations; fluid accumulation in the abdomen and extremeties; hiccups;. These are just a few of what I remember having experienced when my Liver started shutting down.

When we think of someone who has a long history of alcohol abuse we are thinking of classic Liver failure. The symptoms would be about the same, whether the Liver failure were caused by medication (chemical hepatitis), or disease (Cancer, Polycystic Liver Disease, Viral Hepatitis), or injury (alcohol poisoning).

Hope the info is helpful, but more importantly that he does well and the liver enzymes drop back to normal levels.

[KarHart]

Thank you Fay. I had actually done a search and found a post where you had detailed liver failure before. So far I don't see any symptoms except some memory confusion. He has had fatigue every since he started treatment a year ago so I don't really count that. He has been tolerating this second cycle of the clinical trial drug really well. I am hoping that he will be able to go back to the maximum dose. You said these were symptoms you had so I am so glad you were able to bounce back from that. Hope your current problems get better. Thanks again, you are always right there.

[Fay A.]

Hi, again. I want to caution folks not to disregard the symptom of extreme fatigue. The kind of fatigue I refer to when I say "profound" is serious, and can occur prior to coma and/or death as a result of Liver and/or Kidney Failure. If Liver failure is a possibility and your loved one is complaining that they are more tired than they have ever felt then be extra vigilant. If they fall asleep, make it a point to try to awaken them, even if it means they become angry with you for doing so. Better to know you CAN awaken them then find out too late you cannot. Talk to your loved one and tell them you will be checking to make certain they can wake up.