A question about Fatty Livers...

[VictoriaGreen]

Hi there,

I was wondering if I could pick your collective experienced brains...?

About 4 years ago I underwent a lot of investigative stuff for what they thought was a mass in my uterus. I have an ultrasound scan, MRI scan and a CT scan and a couple of appointments with consultants at the hospital.

To cut a long story short, on the last appointment after the different scans, i saw a different consultant who said to me "Oh, it's just cysts afterall, don't worry, most people have them in some form, it's alright. Oh, and by the way, you have a fatty liver we picked up on the scan. Try to lost some weight." I skipped away from the hospital glad to have the all clear on the reason I had been there in the first place.

Skip forward 4 years and this week I went to my GP (who I registered with 3 years ago) and when discussing 'womens things' (my reason for the visit) she said that she had absolutely no record whatsoever on either my electronic files or paper files of all this investigative stuff, had no idea what I was talking about and was horrified that I hadn't been offered medication a result. She is investigating what has happened with this diagnoses with the hospital.

I was discussing all this with a non-diabetic friend of mine, and she suggested that if I had had a diagnosis of a fatty liver at that stage, that that should've been reported back to my GP and would've triggered a set of tests including fasting BG to test for diabetes. (I was diagnosed with T2 18 months ago with very high fasting BGs). I know very little about fatty livers and the stuff on the web is very confusing. Does anyone out there know if this is right, and it is an indicator that should've triggered tests for the D? I'm a bit upset to think that because they didn't follow up with any of the notes etc that I could've potentially had 2 1/2 years of earlier warning and been able to minimise these side effects.

Thanks for reading this far! lol!

Victoria

 

[Northerner]

Fatty liver is associated with diabetes, in that it is thought that it may be an indicator of metabolic syndrome (also known as 'Syndrome X'). This is what chef Anthony Worral-Thompson was diagnosed with and led to his interest in GI and GL diets as a way of preventing the progression to diabetes. It can be due to excessive alcohol consumption, but also associated with abdominal obesity. So, it's something that, if discovered, might lead a doctor to test blood sugar levels too. As we know though, some doctors are more thorough than others - some doctors don't test when they have several things staring them in the face, unfortunately

It's bad that there is nothing in your records of the fatty liver discovery as it may have led to another doctor testing you for impaired glucose response or resistance before you developed diabetes.

 

[VictoriaGreen]

Thanks for your reply Northerner. 🙂

I was just reading an arlier thread and it seems that PCOS (the diagnosis I received for the original reason for being there in the first place) is also linked to insulin resistance and Diabetes. In fact, they prescribe metformin sometimes as a result of that diagnosis.

One thing I have learnt in all this is never to leave my healthcare soley to the doctors!

 

[Andy HB]

Hello Victoria, I was diagnosed with a fatty liver too (non-alcoholic, I might add). I don't think that there has been any communication between the hospital and my GP about it up to now either (except via me!).

When I have my blood tests, they specifically look for indicators (can't remember off-hand what they are) which show whether my liver is 'under stress' or not.

Since the initial diagnosis I have lost a lot of weight (especially around the waist), reduced my fat intake significantly and upped my exercise. All this has contributed to the fact that the last tests did not have any untoward indicators. I am due for another appointment with the hospital in September when I hope to be given the all-clear.

By the way, it is advisable to steer clear of the alcohol even if the fatty liver wasn't alcohol induced until things are an an even keel.

Andy

 

[VictoriaGreen]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for replying 🙂

It is most definitely not alcohol-related I can count on the fingers of 1 hand the amount of times I've had even a single glass of wine in the last year.

I was just really a bit peed off that there were 2 diagnoses there which are related to insulin resistance and possible diabetes and they weren't picked up on. They weren't even sent to my doctors, so I can't blame them.

Hey ho 🙂

Vicky