Hi, Bigi,

Sorry to hear you are having to deal with this. My sister had Hep A. She was taking care of an older land who was ill, and the doctors said she might of contracted it from her. Their other theory had something to do with eating contaminated lettuce...??? I don't know how that would work. I take cholesterol drug...Lipitor...and I have wondered about taking it along w/all these other meds that are hard on my liver. i don't drink alcohol, but my enzymes did go up when I first started taking MTX, so they lowered my dosage.

I am curious as to why your doctor ordered a Hep A test in the first place. Where you having symptoms? I have never tested positive for Hepatitis,

If I were you, I think I would ask to have the test run again to rule out a false positive. I certainly will keep you in my thoughts and prayers and hope that all this turns out just fine. If you do have Hep A, I want you to know that my sister fully recovered. She was in the hospital for about a week.

Blessings,
V

I was having white stool and i knew it had to do someting with the liver. Thats cleared up now,but thats why my primary did the nep test. I never drank wit mtx, so I stop the wine for now. Its one glas with dinner. What can that hurt really, but I will see if that was the culprit or the Simvastatin. My Heart oc put me on those as an anti inflammatory. I never had high cholesterol to begin with. He said they protect your heart. Im glad to hear your Sister is ok. I never thought about lettuce which I eat daily but I always wash it good. We do eat alot of Fish. We live on the Gulf so we always have fresh Fish. I dont know. It is worrisome though,just when your feeling good something else comes along and messes everything up.

I'm sorry, Bigi. It does get frustrating and a bit depressing. Hopefully, the situation will "right" itself, and you won't have any permanent damage. I would think you need ot make sure you get a lot of rest and drink a lot of water to stay hydrated. Hope you hear from your rheumy soon. Will add you to my prayer list, if you are not offended by me doing so...???

V

Thanks V
I am a Christian and we all need prayers. I always include DS Friends to mine as well.
Bigi

Great! I just never want to offend our Jewish brethren, etc. I pray for everyone here, too. Try to get some rest. Think of good things, Bigi.

Blessings,
V

I recently got off Simvistatin also.....but first i had to get off long time Mtx, and NSAID Relafen

Liver ALT/AST was tripled.....so the next one to stop was Simvistatin. My tryglicerides are always high, fatty liver too...non/alcoholic..ALready had Liver ultrasound

Then they were doubled..so i keep repeating Labs, next one 2 more weeks

next one, is cymbalta, affects liver also...but haven't come off that one yet, would need doctors help on that

so no tylenol, NSAID, pain pill....until liver labs come back normal. Mtx is the big one, they watch our for this reason, when we have RA

i get hepatic panel liver test..do not have hepatitis

I do not think it's the Enbrel...i was on it, before Remicade, i do now.

It maybe was an overload of all the other pills. Doctor said liver more important than simvistatin at this point

you have to keep getting new blood tests, to monitor this, it's very important!

Bigi,

I had Hep A in 1974, but they called it infectious hepatitis at the time. I'm not sure how it was diagnosed, but I was as sick as a dog, lost 30 lbs (from a thin frame), stools were like a silvery moon, and urine was like molasses. I was hospitalized for 3 weeks, couldn't work for 6 weeks, and then only half-time for a couple more months. Bad stuff.

The sad news is that the hep A virus is usually spread via a fecal-oral route, meaning tainted food. In my case I'm virtually certain it was from shwarma in a Middle Eastern suq.

I can't help you with blood tests or relation to drugs. I was young, healthy, on no meds, but ate at the wrong place.

I wish you all the best,
doug

V/MT, Hep A is very different from other forms....while both B & C types can be transmitted via blood , such as IV drug use or in certain cases, via sex, Hep A is a food related illness........notable with shellfish but also unfortuneately, this is icky but if someone has it, and handles food, whether a restaurant worker or someone in the field picking vegetables like lettuce, it can be transmitted to the lettuce as can e coli and other nasty things.
this is why it is sooooo important to wash leafy vegetables very very well. It makes me afraid to eat vegetables, knowing this.

I could add one more thing about the vegetable fields but don't know how to say it without really grossing people out.