Now I am curious as you replied, but needs moderation.
Hope you are feeling ok!
I'm curious as to why my post needs moderating. Nothing controversial in it.
Yes, I'm feeling ok thank you - apart from the now usual pain and discomfort.
How long does it take for a post to be moderated?
I think it is here now!
Ah, yes, usually brand names get grounded.
Had to look it up:
- Bifidobac infantis 35624 (no dose found, CFU), quite a raved product, claims to be against bloating, hm, unless you react to something of the fillers/packing: Maize Starch, Pregelatinized Maize Starch, Hypromellose, Magnesium Stearate, Titanium Dioxide
- other one a high 450 billion CFU mix (Streptococcus thermophilus, L. acidophilus, L. plantarum, L. paracasei, L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus bifidobacteria breve, B. longum , B. infantis, (maltose), anti-caking agent (silicon dioxide))
We tried B. bifidum MIMBb75 for half a year with zero impact on guts, the oh so IBS cure. one gets so desperate.
If you have upper abdominal pain and an elevated GGT, I would enquire about liver, if it was looked at.
Or what other ideas doc had.
You are right, radiologists look very specificly at each indication/question and not at other also visible parts if not obvious to the blind eye as time is money.
(We had abdominal x-ray for fecal impaction question though, not only was the loading in ascending colon overlooked as if radiologist only looked at rectum, which is clearly a mistake re indication, but the hips were visible too and a problem visible, but not noted then since not in indication question to look at and not that obvious)
Oh yes please, let us know when spoken to doc again and which further direction or even diagnosis.
You are a very fit person, what else could you actively do.
Yes, get re-checked please. ALT normal is good too.
An upper belly ultrasound?
All all the best!!
Hooray! I didn't want to have to type all that out again.
Well, I rang UCLH yesterday (who were the ones that ordered the blood tests) only to find that I have been discharged from their care (although nobody had bothered to tell me this) and it is now over to my GP. So I rang the GP's surgery and they hadn't received a copy of the blood test results. So I rang UCLH back again and they said they'd send another copy to my GP. I'm not very impressed at the moment. It seems UCLH have exhausted their standard repertoire of tests and that I'm now something of an inconvenient nuisance. The consultant doesn't seem to have the time or inclination to think out of the box. :-(
In the meantime I've been reading up about GGT and I'm beginning to wonder if I've got two separate issues going on. I'm known to have gallstones which could account for the elevated GGT level. The severe upper abdominal pain that I get infrequently could be down to the gallstones. Whereas the distension and lower abdominal pain and movement are probably down to the functional GI disorder.
Anyway I'll have to wait until my GP receives their copy of the blood test results.
Uagh, yes,
the communication is so key and so often not working.
But you have your copy, you could also take that to GP to avoid further delays. ?
The moderate GGT elevation is something for the GP to further investigate or exclude, compare with previous GGTs if you have any.
(As said, I was your level for years until I got an upper abdomen ultrasound and it was a physical benign tumor squeezing the cells, nothing chemically going on.)
Looking at heart disease parameters is a good start, too. (e.g. triglyceride, glucose...)
Yes, people can have as many diseases as they like,
the upper and lower abdo problems could be one and the same or be very different and not connected. Gallstones if silently not blocking should not make problems, but who knows, maybe they are blocking or irritating.
Yes, please, I hope your doc gets you started on looking up on liver/gallbladder/duct via further blood tests (bilirubin, all liver enzymes, CRP, triglyceride....), and ultrasound and go from there.
So far your few enzyme levels do not sound highly alarming, yet you need to know, if something was underlying.
All all the best!!!!
Take good care and pls keep us posted to see, where symptoms lead to which diagnosis.
TA!
PS:
1) Common bile duct stone can simulate acute hepatitis and AST and ALT would be elevated immediately, GGT and ALP delayed.
--> your ALT is normal......
2) if only GGT level is elevated (other liver enzymes normal), this can be via alcohol or aromatic medications with no actual liver disease.
--> HRT is aromatic medication (ring structure), note: not all HRT get a higher GGT. Apparently those with Turner Sydrome -please don't take that personally, I see it plain factual and scientifically- actually tend to higher isolated (without other liver enzymes going up) GGT levels, too.
Please have a look into the leaflet of HRT of side effects. Maybe gives some clues to discuss with doc.
I still think an ultrasound
and a new blood sample covering all liver enzymes and more would be really good too.
Again, Sanya, many thanks for your help and information.
I didn't know what Turner Syndrome was but have looked it up and no, I don't have that.
The HRT I am on is a combination of estradiol hemihydrate and norethisterone acetate. I have left the brand name out to avoid further lengthy moderation. :-)
I will let you know what my GP comes up with.
Just to let you know that despite chasing the GP's surgery for a week I'm still none the wiser as to what should be happening so have booked a telephone consultation with one of the doctors. First available is 21st June (which isn't very impressive either) so watch this space!
oh yes, can so relate to that, waiting, waiting, waiting. We have 7 or 14 months waiting times for specialists....only to find out, it was the wrong one.
Hope your waiting was all worth it and get an answer!!
BTW, side note:
we got our fecal microbiological analysis back, overgrowth of bifidus bacteria. ROFL. We should not take any bifidus or lactobacillus probiotica anymore! !! How funny is that. Who would have thought.
( stool is yeast free, rest was more or less good, too, maybe push some Butyrate producing bacteria as they were very low, but it is very hard to find those products as the market is flooded with lactobacilus and bifidus, closest was a clostridium butyricum probiotic product, that I could find. We are taking Aloe vera anyway and will add arginine as food for those butyrate producers. We have no FODMAP diet success, so had no fear of introducing Aloe vera slowly, which is a fructo-oligosaccharide, that others oh so have to avoid....balance act, always a very individual balance act)
for the FMA one has to be off probiotica and antibiotica and my patient daughter was, but a bifidus overgrowth....and too little butyrate producers....
I finally got to speak to my GP yesterday and she wants to redo the liver function tests so I'm going in to have blood taken next Tuesday.
As to the Vivomixx, that seemed to help the distension a bit (but not as much as the Alflorex had done). But again, after taking it for a while the discomfort became worse (especially at night) so I had to stop that as well. Wondering if that is maybe down to overgrowth of the 'good bacteria'? Seems it might be a very fine balance to reduce the distension and not increase the discomfort.
I have joined the British Gut Project as an initial (and relatively cheap) way of getting an idea of my gut bacteria. It has taken them 5 weeks to send my kit out - it eventually arrived today - so that is not an auspicious start but hopefully it will prove useful.