Guest guest Posted March 13, 2011 Report Share Posted March 13, 2011 Are you speaking of basic liver panel blood tests when you say " they're waiting a few months " ? Generally, we have blood tests called (not quite accurately) liver function tests quite often. For ten years, I had ALT/AST and other blood tests at least a month. At first, I was tested 12 times a month to check on my response to medication. Now, after ten years, I'm told I can be tested after three months, rather than one. If you're not receiving frequent monitoring, you should discuss this situation with your doctors. Certainly, having those simple lab tests a few months apart would be quite unusual in AIH treatment, especially for someone fairly recently diagnosed. Harper AIH dx 2000 [ ] New to group > > > Hi, > My name is . I am 41 and I have AIH/PBC. I wanted to meet people like me > because I don't have alot of support. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 13, 2011 Report Share Posted March 13, 2011 Although Missy has the PBC/AIH overlap, she is only being medicated with Urso for now. I understand that meds for AIH need more fine tuning and/or trial and error, so they require more frequent blood tests than just Urso treatment. I get tested every three months, but my gastro may extend that timeframe once my response to Urso has settled down. in Napa California, age 69, PBC stage 4 dx 9/2010; also IBS, hypertension, Sjogrens -----Original Message----- From: Harper Are you speaking of basic liver panel blood tests when you say " they're waiting a few months " ? Generally, we have blood tests called (not quite accurately) liver function tests quite often. For ten years, I had ALT/AST and other blood tests at least a month. At first, I was tested 12 times a month to check on my response to medication. Now, after ten years, I'm told I can be tested after three months, rather than one. If you're not receiving frequent monitoring, you should discuss this situation with your doctors. Certainly, having those simple lab tests a few months apart would be quite unusual in AIH treatment, especially for someone fairly recently diagnosed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 Thanks for the clarification, . That's really good information. Harper Re: [ ] Missy-lab tests Although Missy has the PBC/AIH overlap, she is only being medicated with Urso for now. I understand that meds for AIH need more fine tuning and/or trial and error, so they require more frequent blood tests than just Urso treatment. I get tested every three months, but my gastro may extend that timeframe once my response to Urso has settled down. in Napa California, age 69, PBC stage 4 dx 9/2010; also IBS, hypertension, Sjogrens -----Original Message----- From: Harper Are you speaking of basic liver panel blood tests when you say " they're waiting a few months " ? Generally, we have blood tests called (not quite accurately) liver function tests quite often. For ten years, I had ALT/AST and other blood tests at least a month. At first, I was tested 12 times a month to check on my response to medication. Now, after ten years, I'm told I can be tested after three months, rather than one. If you're not receiving frequent monitoring, you should discuss this situation with your doctors. Certainly, having those simple lab tests a few months apart would be quite unusual in AIH treatment, especially for someone fairly recently diagnosed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 I want to emphasize that I know very little about PBC or AIH/PBC overlap. I'm very glad for 's response. Harper Re: [ ] Missy-lab tests Although Missy has the PBC/AIH overlap, she is only being medicated with Urso for now. I understand that meds for AIH need more fine tuning and/or trial and error, so they require more frequent blood tests than just Urso treatment. I get tested every three months, but my gastro may extend that timeframe once my response to Urso has settled down. in Napa California, age 69, PBC stage 4 dx 9/2010; also IBS, hypertension, Sjogrens -----Original Message----- From: Harper Are you speaking of basic liver panel blood tests when you say " they're waiting a few months " ? Generally, we have blood tests called (not quite accurately) liver function tests quite often. For ten years, I had ALT/AST and other blood tests at least a month. At first, I was tested 12 times a month to check on my response to medication. Now, after ten years, I'm told I can be tested after three months, rather than one. If you're not receiving frequent monitoring, you should discuss this situation with your doctors. Certainly, having those simple lab tests a few months apart would be quite unusual in AIH treatment, especially for someone fairly recently diagnosed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 Having AIH and PBC one of the diseases can be more prominent then the other. That's the problem I have now the AIH is under control but the PBC is very active. Sent from my iPhone On Mar 13, 2011, at 4:04 PM, Harper <flatcat9@...> wrote: > > I want to emphasize that I know very little about PBC or AIH/PBC overlap. I'm very glad for 's response. > > Harper > > Re: [ ] Missy-lab tests > > Although Missy has the PBC/AIH overlap, she is only being medicated with > Urso for now. I understand that meds for AIH need more fine tuning and/or > trial and error, so they require more frequent blood tests than just Urso > treatment. I get tested every three months, but my gastro may extend that > timeframe once my response to Urso has settled down. > > in Napa California, age 69, PBC stage 4 dx 9/2010; also IBS, > hypertension, Sjogrens > > -----Original Message----- > From: Harper > Are you speaking of basic liver panel blood tests when you say " they're > waiting a few months " ? Generally, we have blood tests called (not quite > accurately) liver function tests quite often. For ten years, I had ALT/AST > and other blood tests at least a month. At first, I was tested 12 times a > month to check on my response to medication. Now, after ten years, I'm told > I can be tested after three months, rather than one. > If you're not receiving frequent monitoring, you should discuss this > situation with your doctors. > Certainly, having those simple lab tests a few months apart would be quite > unusual in AIH treatment, especially for someone fairly recently diagnosed. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 My doctor said that while I have the antibodies for both PBC and AIH and my biospy showed evidence of having both together that my liver tests looked more like PBC than AIH. He is trying the urso first because of the way my liver labs looked and because it the least dangerous of possible drugs that might help. Urso takes a while to show results though and my liver damage appears to be happening at a slow pace. So he was going to have me take urso for three months and go from there. Missy ________________________________ From: Harper <flatcat9@...> Sent: Sun, March 13, 2011 5:02:40 PM Subject: Re: [ ] Missy-lab tests  Thanks for the clarification, . That's really good information. Harper Re: [ ] Missy-lab tests Although Missy has the PBC/AIH overlap, she is only being medicated with Urso for now. I understand that meds for AIH need more fine tuning and/or trial and error, so they require more frequent blood tests than just Urso treatment. I get tested every three months, but my gastro may extend that timeframe once my response to Urso has settled down. in Napa California, age 69, PBC stage 4 dx 9/2010; also IBS, hypertension, Sjogrens -----Original Message----- From: Harper Are you speaking of basic liver panel blood tests when you say " they're waiting a few months " ? Generally, we have blood tests called (not quite accurately) liver function tests quite often. For ten years, I had ALT/AST and other blood tests at least a month. At first, I was tested 12 times a month to check on my response to medication. Now, after ten years, I'm told I can be tested after three months, rather than one. If you're not receiving frequent monitoring, you should discuss this situation with your doctors. Certainly, having those simple lab tests a few months apart would be quite unusual in AIH treatment, especially for someone fairly recently diagnosed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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