Fatty Liver Disease

I turned 60 a few weeks ago and have had to set some new goals in my life. Over time I have gotten lazy with my diet, not cooking and eating a lot of prepared foods. When I do eat at home it was often meat, bread, sugary yogurts and few vegetables.

Back in mid-December I started having a constant discomfort in my lower abdomen. I scheduled an appointment with my physician. They took blood samples, urine samples and stool samples. I passed my physical though my weight was a concern. Over the past few years I had allowed myself to get up to 266 lbs. The excess weight had made everything a challenge, including tying my shoes. I had been squeezing into my jeans and underwear and thought that might be a cause of the discomfort. I reluctantly bought the next size up with a vow to lose weight.

Next I had a ultrasound done on my abdomen. Nothing was found, except I tested positive for Fatty Liver Disease. What?! I knew that wasn't good but I was sure it wasn't the cause of the discomfort in my lower abdomen. Still, I called my doctor. First, she asked me how much I drank? I said, "when I was young I abused alcohol, but now I only drank 4 to 6 beers a week". She said one or two beers a day was okay; then the regular advice of eat healthy and exercise.

I scheduled a CT Scan for my abdomen for the discomfort and then decided to quit drinking alcohol and scheduled and appointment with my naturopathic doctor.

I always look forward to seeing my naturopath. If you have followed my blog you will know that she helped me beat acid reflux after 10 years of suffering. We had a long talk and came up with a plan which included losing weight and reducing the amount of sugar I have in my diet. It seems that Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is on the rise. She prescribed a couple supplements that are good for the liver and the rest is up to me!

The goal for the future is to be more active, monitor my diet (reduce carbs and sugar), hydrate and lose about 5 lbs a month. I am using Cronometer to log my foods and my naturopath will be monitoring to keep track of how I am doing and offer suggestions for improvement.

The CT Scan came back looking fairly normal except for a possible metallic object in my appendix. I talked with the surgeon today and we went through the scans image by image. He said that something in my appendix would not give me discomfort in my lower abdomen. The good news! Since I have lost 16 lbs in the past month the discomfort in my lower abdomen has ceased. The surgeon thinks the discomfort was more of a muscle issue than internal. He checked me for a hernia and found nothing. As for the metallic object? It's a wait and see. Next colonoscopy, it's that time again.

Well, that's it for now! I'll keep you posted. Welcome to being 60!