Has anyone had elevated liver enzymes?

MarS676
MarS676 Member Posts: 22
edited June 2014 in Not Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastases but Concerned

I'm freaking out! I had my first 3 month visit with my oncologist and had a great discussion about my complete pathological response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy. I've been very nervous all week, leading up to today but left there feeling so much better after some routine blood work. Well, I just got a call from her office telling me that my liver enzymes were elevated and she wanted to send me for a PET/CT scan. I know that she is an overly cautious oncologist but I am so nervous that my cancer has metastasized. I want this journey over and done with and can't imagine having to deal with complications. Has anyone had elevated liver enzymes?

I should probably add I am 3 weeks post reconstruction surgery and was on percocets and valium for about 2 weeks. I am also on a daily aspirin regimen. Your quick responses would really help put me at ease. Thanks.

· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • Susie123
    Susie123 Member Posts: 804
    edited March 2013

    Maria, I'm three years out and have always had elevated liver enzymes at every onco visit. I've had every test available and they're all negative for progression or disease, and I don't drink at all, never have. My onco said he sees a few patients every week who have this issue and he doesn't know why. I can't speak to the chemo part of it because I didn't have chemo, but I'm pretty sure I've read on here where many others had elevated liver enzymes post chemo. I'm sure some of the ladies who had this experience with chemo will post soon. I know it's hard to keep from worrying, but there's a good chance that alone does not point to progression. Your onco is just doing what a good onco does, and checking it out to be sure. :)

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mamabee
    mamabee Member Posts: 546
    edited March 2013

    Hi Maria, Yes, I've had elevated liver enzymes and they were from blood taken about 3 weeks after my mastectomy. Like you I'd been taking various painkillers (percocet, tylenol) and an antibiotic which I later read can cause elevated liver enzymes. My oncologist also wanted to send me out for scans, but I talked her into letting me repeat the blood test in a few weeks after I'd been off all that medication for a while. The enzymes were fine in the 2nd blood test. Maybe your oncologist will let you wait a couple of weeks to get your blood retested before making you go through scans?

    Hope this helps - take care.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Beckers
    Beckers Member Posts: 1,883
    edited March 2013

    I had elevated liver enzymes, followed by ultrasound, however, I have fatty liver. No mets. Wishing you a great outcome.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IamNancy
    IamNancy Member Posts: 1,158
    edited March 2013

    I had to get an ultrsound for elevated liver enzymes, and like Beckers - mine turned out to be fatty liver. hope the best for you..

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • SuperFoob
    SuperFoob Member Posts: 505
    edited March 2013

    Maria, try not to freak out to much. Elevated enzymes are not always a sign of liver mets.

    I have the damn little bugger hanging out in my liver and my liver tests (ALT/AST, etc) have never been elevated even when my tumor markers (CA 27.29/CEA) were.

    Best wishes to you.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mammalou
    mammalou Member Posts: 823
    edited April 2013

    I just got bloodwork yesterday with elevated alt. may I ask how elevated yours were when the MO ordered scans?

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • sweatyspice
    sweatyspice Member Posts: 922
    edited April 2013

    I've had elevated alkaline phosphatase for about a year, other enzymes normal.  Abdominal ultrasound inconclusive so did MRI which showed teeny gallstone and fatty liver. 

    Gastroenterologist thought it wasn't liver and might be side effect of Arimidex.  Went to onc.  Took 2 mo vacation from Arimidex, alk phos still climbing.

    Onc now scheduling a nuclear bone scan.  Has anyone had one of those?  What is it/how long does it take/what do they do to you/does it hurt/etc.  The thought of injecting me w radioactive stuff is freaking me out almost as much as the idea of testing me for bone cancer....

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • sheila888
    sheila888 Member Posts: 25,634
    edited April 2013

    sweatyspice.....I had that test...it's kind of long and boring...

    No it doesn't hurt and you are not in a machine....

    I will try to find a picture for you

    BRB.......

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • sheila888
    sheila888 Member Posts: 25,634
    edited April 2013

    This is the machine and that bumpy area is for your legs

    The top part goes up and down over your body to take the pictures

    It will also be close to your face at one point but nothing touches your body...

    good Luck to you

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • sheila888
    sheila888 Member Posts: 25,634
    edited April 2013

    Maria..My enzymes were out of control during chemo

    i hope you already had your test.....

    good Luck

    ♥

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • sweatyspice
    sweatyspice Member Posts: 922
    edited April 2013

    Thanks Sheila!

    Is the injection of the radioactive stuff weird?  (It's an injection and not an IV, right?)

    Mammalou, my alk phosp is now 171, I think.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MarS676
    MarS676 Member Posts: 22
    edited April 2013

    Hi all, thank you for your responses. I am having my PET scan tomorrow and am super nervous. I can't wait to get it over with and hope that everything turns out already. I wll keep everyone posted. 

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mammalou
    mammalou Member Posts: 823
    edited April 2013

    Mars.., can I ask how high and which enzymes were elevated? My PCP told me that they didn't worry until they were 2-3 times higher. She told ME to keep an eye on them. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that if I need blood work. Needless to say, I sent my blood work to MO and am waiting to hear back.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MarS676
    MarS676 Member Posts: 22
    edited April 2013

    Mammalou I actually don't know how high they are, I got a call from the nurse letting me know the results and I got so nervous  I didn't ask her any questions. 

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Charz
    Charz Member Posts: 48
    edited April 2013

    Maria, good luck with your testing. i will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. i hate how this disease puts us on a never ending roller coaster. its interesting this thread because i have elevated bilirubin and was discussing it with the np examining me prior to surgery and she said to me that she finds it very interesting that many, MANY of the women she meets with breast cancer have liver enzyme "issues". she said it is not a coincidence, she has noticed an absolute pattern of women with breast cancer with abnormal liver enzymes, chemo or not. i think there is so much they still dont know about breast cancer and underlying conditions that might be related. 

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MarS676
    MarS676 Member Posts: 22
    edited April 2013

    Hi all- 

    I had my scan yesterday and received my results this afternoon--NORMAL! I was finally able to breathe and know that I will sleep well tonight. 

    The nurse told me that the elevated enzymes could possibly be a result of the medications I have been taking. I have been on and off antibiotics since my mastectomy in December and was popping Percocets like they were mints after DIEP flap reconstruction in Feberuary. She told me that I should follow up with my PCP and get the bloodwork redone. 

    Thank you all for your support. 

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mammalou
    mammalou Member Posts: 823
    edited April 2013

    I am being told to just retest my blood in 6 months by PCP. MO office is calling on Monday with their retest recommendation. I don't know if I should be ok with this or not. A part of me sees no reason hat my liver enzymes should go up. I haven't changed anything. My MO says that Tamoxifen doesn't do this, and I was hanging on to the hope that Tamoxifen was the answer. I don't want o over worry, but I just wish they would o an ultrasound or CT.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • bevin
    bevin Member Posts: 1,902
    edited April 2013

    HI there, I know waiting is scary and frustrating.  I'd probably ask them to at least do an ultrasound . Its inexpensive, non invasive and will show a lot. Based on that they can decide if a CT is needed.  Speak up and ask for what you want. Its hard but I do firmly believe we need to be our own advocates and remember the doctors work for us. Good luck. I hope everthing is okay.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mammalou
    mammalou Member Posts: 823
    edited April 2013

    I am so tired if feeling like a hypochondriac. I understand that it could be nothing, but then again it could be something.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • sweatyspice
    sweatyspice Member Posts: 922
    edited April 2013

    Had the nuclear bone scan yesterday.  Got metallic taste in my mouth which I hadn't heard about but was otherwise uneventful.  An hour scan, hard to stay still that long but not really terrible. 

    Three hour wait between injection of radioactive crap and actual scan, for my bones to become sufficiently radioactive.  Went to see Silver Lining Playbook, which was OK but not great IMO.  Warned not to sit near anyone pregnant  (made sure not to sit near anyone, period!).

    Waiting for results.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • dreaming
    dreaming Member Posts: 473
    edited April 2013

    I am ages from my diagnosis, chemo and surgeries. I was diagnosed with non alcoholic fatty liver disease, I do not drink, do not take meds for my chronic pain.

    Eat a very healthy diet. I am not the kind of person that "cancer" comes to my mind as soon as I have a health problem, but worries me that this diagnosis can have serious consequences.

    I was able to lower my enzymes a lot, I am taking zinc and fish oil that my GI doctor recomended.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Givemestrength
    Givemestrength Member Posts: 11
    edited May 2013

    I am freaking out.  high Alkaline Phosphate three weeks post double mx.  Tests were normal back in March.  Can mets just show up now  so quick since last bloodwork?  Being scheduled for bone and PET scans   per my MO.  Scared of tests and scared of results, especially waiting for results.. The BC roller coaster, want to get off now.. I am on medications post surgery with expanders.  Hoping for the best.

    Thanks much for any input..

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • AlaskaAngel
    AlaskaAngel Member Posts: 1,836
    edited May 2013

    I too am a long ways out from tx w/o recurrence, and have had an elevated alk-phos since tx. A lot of middle-aged women who never have had bc and who have had bc have an elevated alk-phos and have a fatty liver (like me). Most simply don't know they do because they are never diagnosed with cancer to have the lab done in the first place.

    In my life the most alcohol I have ever consumed has been a beer or a drink of wine a month, and I have maintained a healthy diet most of my life before and since dx.

    A.A.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • stephluisa
    stephluisa Member Posts: 8
    edited May 2013

    I just came back from a 8 hour wait to get in ER...why?  because I have had two breast cancers that I found myself and now I am running a fever, always have elevated liver enzymes BTW, and my tumor marker was just taken 3 weeks ago and is the same...Stays at 10.  I have had two reconstructions because the first silicone reconstruction in 2009 seeped silicon out and I have small bits of it in my system. Doesn't help my fibromyalgia for certain but here's the gist of it.  I went to the ER with an elevated fever after about a week of pain in same breast that both cancers were diagnosed..A .4cm and .7cm...the second time no one would believe me!  I lived in VA and my surgeon from first one said that I should have seen her sooner since she had never met anyone so in tune with her body.

    I had the ER doc look at my painful right breast and he just dismissed me..I am in North GA and I have never had this type of ambivalence.   I am running a fever, have pain and I am so worried.

    I can't get anyone to give me an MRI or ultrasound.  The oncologist told me to see the surgeon and she is the one that didn't believe me when I said I thought my implants had ruptured..I was right of course that the silicone had seeped out, but she elected to "dismiss" me from her practice on Thursday.  Since than I have had more and more pain but no redness ..I neglected to say that I had my implants removed in 2010 and saline implants put in.  The surgeon that did that procedure said they weren't ruptured and if there was silicone in my body than it was from a previous augmentation that I didn't tell him about!!! That is false. My ex almost got up to put his lights out since he said I was a liar.!

    Now I sit here trying desperately to understand how this could happen..I have been diligent about my care.  I just passed my second 5 year anniversary in February.  They told me when I was at oncologists office that I could go off Aromasin and less than two days later I started feeling the right breast that had had the tumors very sore and I could feel that pain you get when they do a biopsy..The pain was right in the second biopsy area..That is where I am hurting.  My under arm nodes (I had the sentinel one taken out and three other with the two surgeries. 

    My question to all of you is have you any expereince with ruptured silcone implants and/or any symptoms like the ones I am having?  my normal temp is 97.2 but it is runing over 99.  yesterday is was a bit lower but it is slowloy rising every day.  The ER doc tool one look at me and said it's not an infection but it could be cancer again and than said it's not life threatening ...and walked out of the room.

    I am so upset and frustrated and could really appreciate any input.  I know that I have gone through my Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book over and over trying to figure this out, but the more I read the more confused I am. I also have some itching in the breast and have had numbness in my hand when I wake up from sleeping.

    I am struggling to move (just put a contract on my house and live alone so it doesn't help not having a caregiver) and my cat is not happy either..Undecided  We are both asking for some guidance .  

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories