What were your symptoms of liver mets/typical symptoms?

LaceyS
LaceyS Member Posts: 4
edited June 2014 in Not Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastases but Concerned

I am concerned about my loved one. My mom has always been healthy and fit, but she has lost 20 pounds exactly since 2-3 years ago from 160 to 140 at 5'6. This is normal BMI. Now, several months after her stage 1 breast cancer diagnosis she is looking so thin to me and pale and i am so concerned. I think she weighed 137 last time she was weighed and this was with clothes. She had a bilateral mastectomy and she is finishing up reconstruction. She needs to have nipples and fat filling because there are some hollow pockets. Im not sure if what i am seeing is the hollow pockets, making her look even thinner, but her arms also look very thin. She thinks that after her mastectomy, it caused her to lose weight in her arms too. 

Anyway, she just had blood work at her follow up, and they did liver tests as usual and it all came back within perfect range (ALT, ALB, ALP, AST...). Would it be possible to have perfect liver function tests and have a tumor that is causing to lose weight as i assume this would have to be a big tumor and wouldn't it show up on the blood work?

My mom also diets though and like just eats apples for lunch and then just something light for dinner so she is also fanatical about losing weight recently too. If we do go out to eat then she will get something big and she'll have ice cream and pizza on the weekend, but usually during the week she does apples for lunch and like yogurt parfait later for dinner and she does exercising. It just has me very worried because i can't tell if she is losing weight because of her crazy diet or because she has liver mets. it makes me scared if she did have liver mets we wouldn't be able to tell until it is too and then there would be no time or possibility of doing anything about it.

Its hard with the doctor too because when they ask if you have any of the symptoms, we don't say weight loss because we assume that it has to do with the diet, but i don't know. i was wondering if you could give me some knowledge of the more typical symptoms... like does it usually show up in blood work first or is weight loss the typical first sign? can you have one without the other... etc.....

THANK YOU! 

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Comments

  • Lauriesh
    Lauriesh Member Posts: 692
    edited August 2013

    Hi lacy,



    I have liver mets, and the first symptoms I had was a pain when I breathed in. Many are diagnosed with no pain and normal liver numbers. In fact, when i had my liver numbers checked 4 months before I was diagnosed they were normal, yet, when the tumors were discovered one was 11 cm!



    Weight loss can be a sign, but I think you need to talk to your mom and ask her if she is purposely trying to lose weight. I have lost some weight recently and that is what they asked me at my drs. She may want to keep track of her calories for a couple of weeks to see if she is eating enough.

    Catching it early really doesn't seem to matter. Obviously, mine weren't and I have been Ned for over 2 1/2 years . Since I have been diagnosed, I have seen women with small tumors who unfortunately have passed already because no treatments seemed to work for them.



    Laurie

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  • nancyh
    nancyh Member Posts: 2,644
    edited August 2013

    Hey Lacey, very sweet of you to be concerned about your mom.  Weight loss from liver mets only happens at a very advanced stage, so it would be pretty unlikely that is the culprit.  As to your question about liver met symptoms, often there are no symptoms.  I had a strange pain in the top part of my right shoulder, but I think my case was pretty unusual.

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