Latest update as of October 18, 2013

Well, I had my appointment with my Gastroenterologist today.  I've been working really hard on improving the health of my liver and my overall health, but I found out my numbers were a little bit of a mixed bag this time.  My ALT and AST numbers were a little different, but little enough that it might just be natural fluctuation.  But my ALP was up by about 30.  This isn't so good.  I think a reason for this is how much I've been tapering the Urso.  I really, really hate being on meds- meds that have no end in sight.  And they also make my hair fall out by the HANDFUL every washing.  So I've been tapering at a pretty good rate to try to balance liver health and the rest.  I may have pushed that a bit far recently, so I'll need to bring that back to a level that pushes my liver in the right direction.  It's been nice actually seeing hair growing back! But I take liver over hair...So I need to work on the balance.

All this has me thinking, I trial and error a lot here as a way of trying to get myself into optimum health.  I do this because I feel like I'm forced to take control of it myself.  Most mainstream doctors are all about meds and treating illness, NOT about creating health.  There's a big difference in those mentalities and I haven't felt like I could really find a provider that would embrace health- unless it was a 'hippy' that other people wouldn't respect their suggestions.  I would, since I don't think it it takes a piece of paper with MD on it to really understand the human body and how to help- It takes experience and a DESIRE to understand.  But when you try to plead your case to others, if the person giving the advice doesn't have those two little letters, some people tend to dismiss them.  I do have a few resources that I trust, but honestly I want someone local that I can trust and that I can AFFORD!  So I'm researching.  Looking for my guide in this journey :) I know I will find them, in this of all towns I'm sure...

So before I put up the numbers, I wanted to note the additional numbers I have.  First I added albumin as I have found it is a very good indicator of liver health.  I am in range with this one, but I'd like to work on lowering it since I'm really BARELY in range.  Also, I added protein, it's good, but just keeping it here for tracking.  Also, I added Bili Direct just as another indicator for bili.  And the PT is the Prothrombin Time- this is the time it takes to clot.  As the liver gets sicker, the time to clot takes longer and longer.  So far I've only been getting this checked occasionally, but I've included it to show that my PT is good.

Actually, everything except the ALP is in range.  This is definitely good.  But I am going to focus on trying to get everything better.  I'm hoping my Guide will have some good ideas for me.

Date	AST	ALT	ALP	Bili total	Bili direct	Albumin	Protein	PT
Normal	5–35	7–56	30–132	0.1–1.3	0–0.3	2.9–5	6–8.4	9.6–12.8
2/20/2012	235	389	937	1.7	-	4.6	8.2
3/6/2012	142	253	633	1.1	0.3	4.4	7.4	10.9
4/16/2012	59	101	194	1	0.3	4.4	7.3
5/14/2012	36	56	160	1	-	4.3	7.2
7/6/2012	31	42	163	1.2	0.3	4.3	6.9
10/2/2012	58	113	221	1.4	0.3	4.5	7.4
1/31/2013	47	72	201	0.9	0.2	4.5	7.4
4/30/2013	36	44	188	1.2	0.3	4.2	7
7/30/2013	36	36	185	1.1	0.3	4.3	7
10/16/2013	32	39	214	0.8	0.2	4.4	7.2	10.8

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll update again soon!