Hello,
I've been drinking fairly heavily for about 8 years and was hoping to find some information about fatty liver from individuals who have experienced a similar diagnosis. Last year about this time, I was drinking the heaviest in my entire life. I averaged about 10 drinks a day, every day. 9 months ago I noticed discomfort at the bottom of my front rib-cage, right side. I started to wonder whether it was my liver, but I put it off. The ache worked its way to the right side of my torso, (at the bottom of the last rib), and then it slowly worked its way to my back (still the very far right side of my back, again under that last rib). The pain jumped around during the day, front, side, back, etc. but always on the right side of my body. I finally decided it was time to make changes in my life and went to the doctor, told him about my drinking history. He had blood work done, and my ALT and AST were slightly elevated (60ish both).
I made some drastic changes with my drinking. I cut back from 60 a week to right around 30. The discomfort never left though, and 3 months later I went back to the doctor. He had more blood work done and scheduled an ultrasound. The ALT and AST bloodwork came back normal, but the ultrasound showed fatty liver.
My delusion was that I thought I could cut back more and still drink but heal my liver. I was obviously wrong. I cut back to 20 drinks a week over the winter and that constant ache never left. I then cut out all alcohol during the week, saving only for the weekends. That went on for about a month. The past 3 weeks I've had a couple of beers, and still, the ache has not left.
I'm extremely physically fit. I lift weights, run half-marathon's, do cross-fit, triathlon's, etc. Another one of my delusions was that I could drink as much as I wanted because I exercise so much. After all, I don't eat donuts for breakfast, can't I have my one bad thing in life? Obviously not.
I was hoping to get some feedback from folks on this forum in regards to fatty liver and pain in the liver area. I thought for sure cutting back from 60 to 20 to 10 to now I have a few beers with family and friends on the weekend and I don't even get a buzz. I decided yesterday that I'm just not going to drink anything anymore because I'm tired of worrying about this constant ache. Any thoughts on when I might start to get some relief?
Thanks for your help, very much appreciated.
