SickInLove

For the last 6 months I’ve had upper right quadrant pain. I’ve had blood tests and a ultrasound and was told that my liver was fine. The pain is constantly on my mind giving me anxiety . I have a appt with a GI dr in a few weeks. I can’t help but worry that my liver has something wrong.

Offthemast

I was having back pain too drinking heavily, had a blood test, and checked out fine.

17 days sober and it's non-existent. Something was up.

ScottFromWI

Have you considered that the pain might actually be anxiety related? If you have been to a doctor and tested for liver issues I think you need to trust what they tell you. Or get a second medical opinion. You won't solve it by seeking medical advice on the internet though - glad you have an appt scheduled.

As a health anxiety suffer, I can attest that it's very possible to invent symptoms in your head that manifest themselves physically.

Rob762

I read somewhere that the liver doesn't have any actual pain receptors. When it gets inflamed it pushes on the sac that surrounds it thereby causing the discomfort. Not discounting the anxiety Factor. And for the record blood test for your liver or almost borderline worthless. Reverse effect can also happen I believe if you have abstained and everything tries to go back to normal I've had the problem for several years now. Seems to be worse when I try to quit but that may also be anxiety and the reduced numbing effect of alcohol on the body

Offthemast

Anxiety could be it. Also, I was thinking that my body might have been really dehydrated at night and my muscles were having spasms causing a sore back. Lower and upper right.

corriec

Hi, SiL. I don't know how much you drank, but according to Alcoholrehab.com, almost 90% of heavy drinkers will at some stage develop a Fatty Liver. It is totally reversible (with time), if we stop drinking completely.
What does it feel like? Well, I have pain as I write to you, so I can tell you exactly. It's like carrying something heavy and dead and aching inside your right lower ribcage. It hurts constantly; when you sit, when you get up, when you stretch; when you drive, and, and... There are stages though, bad and not-so-bad. A twinge here and there, or constant pain. It gets worse after every binge, and with every next withdrawal.
Worse, is that our struggling livers are what causes most of our other symptoms: brain-fog, jaundice, body pains, cramps, etc... It does/cannot properly clean our blood, as it is supposed to, and so, the other organs and body and brain all receive blood with poisons still in it.
But like I said: Fatty liver, even Alcoholic Hepatitis, can be reversed and repaired over time and with (complete) abstinence. So hang in there. It - your liver - and everything else, DOES get better; all it takes is time and loving care. Diet, exercise, lots of water, sleep...
I have had liver and pancreas pain for years, on and off, and I probably hurt a lot worse than you do, but I hope my liver will forgive me once more. It (like I said) just takes longer each time. Ashamed of myself for failing once more. Back on day twelve...

http://alcoholrehab.com/alcoholism/f...liver-disease/

LBrain

It could be sympathy pain for what you are doing to your liver.
Sorry, no coffee yet...

Ken0331

Just try to settle your mind, wait for the GI doc appointment, and focus on one day at a time. If you have no lasting, harmful effects you'll have worried away a few weeks of your life over nothing. If you have some liver problems, worrying about it over the next few weeks won't change a damn thing.

Let the professional do his/her job. You do yours - abstain from alcohol and eat well.

SickInLove

I definitely think it could be that. I know I suffer from health anxiety. I tend to focus and obsess over symptoms. I think that’s why I am seeking personal experience on here.. just trying to ease my anxiety. I had blood work and a ultrasound and both came back normal but I’ve heard people on here say that fatty liver might now show up with those tests.. my drs seem sastified with those results. They think the pain could be digestive related which is why they referred me to GI.

SickInLove

It most definitely could be 😂 my brain knows what I put my liver through.

SickInLove

Thank you so much for sharing your personal experience, definitely very helpful. My pain is up high in my rib cage in the front and back. I suffer from back pain do to my job (hairstylist) and a few herniated discs. Does liver pain hurt when you press on your liver area? How was yours diagnosed? I think I’m just nervous because I’ve seen people on here say that you can have normal blood work and still have a fatty liver .. I’m not sure if that’s true. I’m not sure if I should be more persistent on a second opinion. Mine doesn’t hurt at all when I press on the liver area, my blood and ultrasound checked out fine. I know we can’t give medical advice on here but hearing personal experience helps a lot.

Ken0331

My GI doc Dx'd my fatty liver through CT scans and my blood work reflected the impaired function. I also take about three meds for my Crohn's Disease that are processed through the liver.

My GI doc's only advice was stop drinking, and find a program for help if I couldn't do it by myself. Even with the bad blood work numbers and the beginnings of liver disease he didn't pull me off any of those meds.


Stop worrying about what might or might not be. Worry won't make it better. Let the professional do his/her job; you do yours.

ForestFrenzy

I don't know about liver pain.
Right before I got sober, I experienced a dull bloated pain where my gallbladder was, along with lower back and groin pain. I went to the ER and had all tests done - blood a CT scan and all showed normal.
Here's the thing: if you are feeling pain then your body is telling you there is something wrong - as the ER doctor told me, their tests aren't infallible. Your body knows best.
Now that I am over 2 months sober that pain went away.
They didn't find anything "abnormal" but process of elimination says those symptoms were from my copious drinking.

SickInLove

Thanks for all of the responses. I think the reason I’m nervous is because since I got my healthy blood test and ultrasound results I’ve had a few relapse/binges. Nothing compared to what I was drink during my 2 years of severe alcoholism but still bad enough to be hungover the next day. I hope I didn’t do damage with that because my dr said my Insurance probably won’t approve another full blood work up and ultrasound since I had one 5 months ago. I’m feeling tons of regret for my relapses.. for a lot of reasons but mostly because I wouldn’t be so worried had I just refrained from drinking after getting my positive results.

LilyMarie

Liver (area) pain is what finally scared me enough to finally quit. I was diagnosed with a fatty liver when I was around 31-ish. That freaked me out, but not enough to make me quit.
A little before my 38th birthday I had some bloodwork done and my liver enzymes were shockingly high, no surprise there. Not long after I started having a dull pain in my upper right quadrant. It would come and go, until one day/night the pain was radiating further in every direction and it even hurt to lie on my right side. It also started feeling "warm" where I'd go to bed with an ice pack. THAT was the final push it took me to get serious about quitting - and I finally did.
On the plus, about five months later I had bloodwork done again and fatty liver was gone, enzymes back to normal. Everything was...normal. That also gave me incentive to continue to NOT drink and really focus on becoming as healthy as I could be.

Done4today

All alcoholism is severe. Don't let your AV talk you into that you weren't "that bad". This thinking kept in the bottle for 10 years longer. You can get off the hamster wheel now.

I had a fatty liver for the last two years of my drinking diagnosed with sonogram, blood tests and mri. I only had pain when I did certain movements and I had obvious swelling in my upper right quadrant. After 8 months of continuous sobriety all my tests were back to within normal ranges.

Good luck SIL

Ken0331

Nonsense. I get blood work done every 3-6 months for my Crohn's. If your GI doctor wants to order a blood panel, you'll get it. CT scan, you'll get it. You get the picture.


Stop worrying about it, worry won't help - but it will make your head spin if you engage in it. Fatty liver happens to people besides alcoholics, too. The liver has an amazing capacity to heal itself. What you can do is stop drinking and stay stopped.

scottynz

I had intermittent pain like that. I had tests which showed elevated liver enzymes, so I stopped drinking. The pain would disappear and reappear, but subsequent blood tests showed the liver results were getting worse despite months of sobriety. Ultrasounds and CT scans showed normal liver and gall bladder. I had a full MRI, everything looked normal, but the liver results were still increasing. I had cameras in every place you don’t want a camera to go.

I then had a test with a tracer where I had to then drink milk and eat a mars bar to test gall bladder function. It turned out mine was dead and poisoning me, it looked normal in scans and had no stones etc, but was the cause.

I had it removed and the problem went away. So I dodged a bullet. After all the fear that my drinking had caused serious liver problems, or liver cancer only to find it was something else, that should have scared me sober right?

Nope, bullet dodged I reloaded the gun and went back to drinking for a few more years, progressing to more frequently and in greater amounts.

I had a swollen feeling in the liver area and finally decided it was time to quit 24 days ago, tapering slowly for two weeks and sober now for ten days. I saw my Dr at the start of the process and had blood work done and yes my liver results are high again. I can’t play Russian roulette anymore, I’ve put too many bullets in the gun.