An unhappy liver

I think I mentioned in a previous post that Nora’s liver enzymes had been a bit elevated since the beginning of the year. We changed a few things and had hoped they would return to normal but the opposite has happened and now her AST and ALT are more elevated than they have been in a very long time. There are numerous things that can aggravate the liver but in Nora’s case the obvious reason would be long term TPN use even though she’s also on Omegaven. Maybe I’m just being stubborn but I just can’t help but feel there’s another piece to the puzzle, just because she’s on such a low dose of TPN at this point. But even on a low dose, TPN does have an accumulative effect.

What makes this elevation even more puzzling is that Nora’s Omegaven dose was increased a couple of months ago, so in theory, more Omegaven should have helped these numbers drop. But with Nora’s fat malabsorption challenges maybe the increase was too much for her liver to handle. Although the Omegaven is going straight into her blood stream and not through the intestines, could these elevations be due to a fatty liver? Who knows, I feel like I’m talking/thinking in circles. I’ll I know is that I do not like seeing these numbers continue to rise.

But ultimately this just reconfirms the need for us to try getting Nora off TPN all together again soon. At Nora’s last GI appointment the plan was to try a TPN break in the fall hoping that by then her weight will have picked back up again. Which it’s finally starting to slowly pick back up. 🙂

We took Nora to see Dr. Min Tian, our accupuncturist who practices traditional Chinese medicine, to get her opinion of what may be going on. Dr. Tian has played a big role in Nora’s care since the beginning and she has been a huge help with Nora’s diet. She provides a  good balance with her knowledge of the bodies’ natural rhythm and the the necessity of Nora’s extreme medical care. She thinks that there is too much fat build up in Nora’s liver, either from the higher Omegaven dose, from her diet, or both. So she recommended we do a natural liver flush with fresh melon juices. So we raided the health food store and bought every kind of organic melons they had and Nora gets to enjoy a fresh cup of juice twice a day.

Dr. Tian has proven to be right on the money in the past with her diagnosis before the medical testing results have come in. But regardless of the reason for Nora’s elevated liver numbers, we think she can benefit from a cleansing. I’ll be sure to share the outcome of the liver flush with fresh juices.