Hep C Discussion Forum

wow that is so informative.  Yes, no symptoms, blood tests normal and the doctor not concerned.  I had a fibroscan before I was cured and it was 15.  Do you think I should get another one?  the 6-month ultrasound look good

Shemp,

Lynch, starting this GB convo off, now has me pondering about your heartburn.

Just like some people find natural ginger can help you feel as though you can "settle" an "upset" stomache, or quell nausea, perhaps even quiet motility and hyper-ruminations (I have wondered if ginger is thought to have an anti-spasmodic effect), if you do not wish to rely on "drugs" for relief of "heartburn", then i would be trying all other common sense things and see what works best for your heartburn - keeping your stomache "busy" with a little food in it, often, (just plain soda crackers periodically throughout the day) sometimes keeps the acid production controlled in a busy-demand way and can stop you sensing the acid-burning sensation in your stomache. People who are having acid/gastric issues sometime take the "sippy" diet, again a theory loosely based on keeping the stomache acid production controlled in a busy way by taking tiny frequent feedings of milk/cream and such, at times as frequently as even on a near-hourly basis!

Gives a whole new meaning and justification for those in-between meal snacks (frequent cracker or milk and cracker snacks). Try eating the foods you think might calm things, experiment and see what works - soda crackers or a sippy milk/cream diet has worked for some. 

I would start with just eating a soda cracker or two periodically through the day when you know you are having the heartburn and see if cracker feedings can temporarily relieve/quell it. 

Another question would be .... are you associating having heartburn with taking the Mav? Are you taking your Mav with food?  I would, i would be taking my Mav with a fairly substantial meal. 

Also, just a thought, my partner is forbidden to hang upset down (discouraged to lay flat really), to bend over, lean over, especially when exerting pressure on his abdomen, as he has a buggered eosophogeal sphincter, he's on PPI's which is his penalty and heaven-sent insurance for the reflux acid burns he is prone to. He has felt quite an improvement since getting on the PPI's fulltime and since being on them has only rarely had a reflux episode since.

I have wondered, when stones are "on again/off again", ie. moving about "occluding" (and/or then sometimes "not-occluding") the duct outlet for bile freely-flowing from the GB and entering the gut when it is supposed to, that perhaps under and during those fleeting obstruction conditions one might sense what you would want to "call" heartburn? Stomache complaints have so many descriptors! ... indigestion, acid indigestion, heartburn, nausea. Stomache and gut things, sometimes hard to discern what the cause of the gastric distress is, hard to apply a descriptor for what you feel, and for the condition! 

No wonder we say things like stomi-cake!

Try some crackers i say Shemp, that can't hurt much.  C.  

Thanks Tig,

Always looking for a second opinion.

Hey Tig,

I have a gallstone question I hope you can enlighten me on.My Dr. told me I have a few and was considering yanking out my gallbladder but wanted to cure the hep c first.I don't have pain and it really doesn't bother me but,can stones cause heartburn? I've had some heartburn issues lately and I don't want to take anything.My Dr. tells me I can take prilosec as long as I separate it by 12 hours from the Mavyret.Any ideas?

Well Hi ya JLynch!

Sorry to hear they see gallstones, but nice they are still doing abdominal U/S's on you (still every 6 moths?) - that is good.

So, you mean .... everything ELSE in your abdominal U/S is "clear" except for these stones (they DO look at a lot of other things and organs in there via an U/S ya know)!

And gallstones, gall bladder sludge, and sometimes evidence of previously insulted or hardworking gall bladders are seen, but nothing is ever needed to be done about it (depending!) - it all depends on many factors whether gall stones are merely a thing of note or a problem that might have to dealt with. How many, how little, how huge, what signs and symptoms/troubles are you and the doc associating directly with these stones?

You have to cough up more info for us to guess on, what the U/S report actually says, what your other labs are, timelines if you have noticed symptoms, what your doc thinks, etc./ etc.

So, if you have been getting U/S's (or any other imaging) every 6 months, then had they NEVER mentioned anything funny at all about your GB before? Was your GB perfect before and all along each time they did an U/S of you, same size, no changes - until just suddenly stones appear at this one last recent imaging??

I recall from some of your old threads ("post treatment blood test "), that you did have a curious alkaline phosphatase (ALP) blip, that coincided with a highish AST and bili - sometimes signs associated with GB complaints, maybe you have been brewing GB things longer than you know of or that your U/S's conveniently "clearly" showed - I don;t know.

Your latest rounds of ALP/ALT/AST's and bili's might be good to compare (over time) to look for elevated patterning that might be pointing to GB inflammation/upset/stones/sludge/obstruction.

I like to know about peoples stones (when it turns out they are packing), when it does come up on the site, just cuz I'm interested and nosey, but to also know how many end up just sitting on the stones long term/indefinitely - we don't get to "follow" very many stones and GB's around here it seems! I know Tig had his GB out, RC too, and other folk for various good reasons, and I know our lovely 5 and a couple others around here also sport some stoney jewels in their GB's - we had one fellow here fairly recently (I cannot actually recall just off-hand this very second how impressive his "stone status was" but he did have an sudden, acute, red hot, emergency GB attack for which he needed immediate GB removal whilst he was in midst of DAA treatment) - I am thinking his GB timing (in relation to the DAA use) was perhaps just cooincidental.

I have no idea the reason (causation) for your stones - bad luck?, you were put on statins you said at one time??, anybody could get GB stones anytime (not just us HCV folk or us HCV-cured folk).

I seems not unreasonable to suspect having chronic HCV could affect all parts of our gastrointestinal system (all parts, GB, as well as liver) and gut and the whole of our body and systems really, being that HCV is a systemic viral infection. 

Details, details man! - man of few words. I would love to talk GB more. What have your labs and symptoms been, what do YOU (and your doc) think and say? 

Nice you check in and post!  C.

PS - have you had anymore any fibroscans, what are your Fscores and kPa's, do they give you AFP's too with your LFT's?