Liver and med issues- poss trigs

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-17-2003
Liver and med issues- poss trigs
2
Tue, 08-16-2005 - 11:23am

Hey everybody, been awhile since I've posted. I'm about ready to kill my doc.

There are no pdocs in our rural area, so my meds are prescribed by a GP. I was on Depakote for four months, then switched six months ago to Topamax. Well, my liver enzymes, whatever those may be, have been going up- not into a danger zone, but up. So yesterday, after the latest bloodwork, I get this call from the doc, announces she wants to test for hepatitis! It seems that she just now found out (just now? WHAT DO YOU MEAN JUST NOW, WOMAN) that Topamax is processed by the kidneys, not the liver, so she's decided that "something else may be going on with my liver" and wants to test.

I got the blood draw for the hepatitis panel, but was still freaking out. So I get on the Internet, and into the drug manual at work. Discover that 1)Depakote can be terribly damaging to the liver 2)that this effect can continue even after you're off the med 3) that aspirin, of which I take a lot (I get headaches a lot) amplifies this effect of the med. And oh, yeah, our nurse at work has dealt with Depakote toxicity before and it presents exactly like hepatitis. So call the doc up. "Oh, well, gee, I don't know...you were only on it for four months...I guess that could be it..."

So I am just not in a good place right now, at all. If it really is liver damage from the Depakote, I can deal with that, but I'm freaking out that it might *be* hepatitis. I've thought and thought and thought, and I can't come up with a single idea as to how I could have gotten such a thing (haven't ever even *met* someone with hepatitis as far as I know, never touched drugs, etc). But knowing that is not helping. And if I did have it, I'm scared that they wouldn't let me keep my job. I work with adults with developmental disabilities, and I don't want to put them at risk, but I don't want to live without them! They are my babies! And that is all I can think about right now... How could I live without my babies? I don't give a damn if I am sick, I will take whatever med and suck it up and deal with it, but what about my babies?

Oh, I do hope this made some sense. If you made it this far, I congratulate you.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-06-2005
Tue, 08-16-2005 - 11:31am

I'm so sorry this is happening.

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Avatar for littlemascara
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-11-2003
Tue, 08-16-2005 - 1:33pm
I hope your tests come back good. I know JUST how you feel, I went through a similar thing when a CAT scan showed "spots" on my liver and cancer was a possibilty. It's really scary to go through, and I just wanted to say I hope everything comes back fine for you like it did for me.

littlemascara