My Husband's Fibroscan Results - January 2016

I finally finished a video showing the results of my husband's FibroScan. You can see it here:

 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If you have cirrhosis you should be under a doctor's care. Cirrhosis is a very serious and life-threatening condition. I am not a doctor and am unable to give medical advice. I've just learned a lot over the last 4 years, since my husband was first diagnosed with cirrhosis (the earlier stages), and I want to share with you what we learned.

I've done a lot of research on different supplements but I am not a doctor and cannot advise you on what you should take and what you should not. Certain things may have worked for my husband but I cannot say they will work for you. You may need more than what he needed. Cirrhosis is a very serious, life threatening condition that hospitalizes over 300,000 people per year and 25,000 people die from it annually (these statistics are from the US alone). Make no mistake, cirrhosis kills, and it kills often. If you are in stage 3 or 4, you should take this very seriously. DO NOT WAIT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

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After a year of absence from seeing my husband's liver specialist (and a year of drinking Jake's "special water" plus a few other tricks) we finally went back today, so he could get his much-anticipated Fibroscan! (I'm going to upload a video of it soon so you can see it was for real).

For anyone not familiar with our story, my husband Jake was hospitalized 4 times, due to cirrhosis (from alcohol), between 2011 and 2014. He had late stage cirrhosis (end stage liver disease) and was told he would have to get a transplant and probably have to go on disability. Many people thought he would die. His skin was greenish/yellowish/gray, he looked like a pregnant skeleton, and doctors made it sound like there is no way to reverse cirrhosis. He really did look like he was going to die. The people from his hospital sent a priest into his room and also another person to talk to him about getting his affairs in order!

When we went in today, I loved seeing all theGREEN on his chart on the doctor's computer screen (wish I could have gotten a clearer picture but I didn't dare get closer, as I knew his doctor would be annoyed to see me taking a photo at all... i was standing behind him while he talked to my husband). There is a yellow row at the bottom but I'm not sure why because there is nothing in it.

We have been wanting to do this test forever, but just couldn't afford it until now. For those of you with cirrhosis, or those of you who have loved ones with it, you know that cirrhosis can be a bit like having a black hole in your bank account (when you total up all the expenses for my husband's cirrhosis it is upwards of a quarter million dollars). A Fibroscan costs around $500, and Jake still doesn't have health insurance, but some places may give a discount - like 30 percent - if you don't have insurance and pay within 30 days. Luckily the place we went to was able to give us this discount.

Although we are still facingmounds of debt thanks to cirrhosis, my husband recently got a long-awaited, and well-deserved raise at work, and we were able to take the plunge and get this thing done once and for all!

Ever since I saw a man (who drinks the same water Jake does) say his doctor said he didn't have cirrhosis (even though he'd had it for 7 years) and couldn't seem to find it on an ultrasound (which I believe was a Fibroscan), I was hopeful that my husband would have similar results when he got his Fibroscan. I know my husband's score may not be as good as the guy who said that, but he has made undeniably significant progress (and I don't think that guy ever had cirrhosis that was as bad as my husband's). It seems that they have made about the same "degrees" of improvement (which appears to be a lot).

The guy who said he no longer had cirrhosis, said that his doctor had said, in order to have cirrhosis, he would have to have a score of 12.5, but he was only at a 6.3.

 He was told he had "the liver of a 45 year old." I couldn't tell how old the guy was, but I'm guessing he was probably about 50 (but looking good for his age).

So, the whole time I watched the screen while my husband's ultrasound was being performed, I kept thinking, please be under 12.5, please stay under 12.5.... and I am very happy to report that these are the scores that my husband had:

7.9 (1.62)

11.4 (1.95)

8.0 (1.63)

10.2 (1.85)

His "Mean Value" (Overall) Score is 9.37.

A person with cirrhosis has a score of 12.5+  

I actually got a little teary eyed as I watched the numbers on the screen. I'd been waiting to see this for a long time! We've worked so hard to try to reverse his cirrhosis, and now I feel like we have proof that all that effort paid off.   

  

Jake's doctor confirmed that he appears to be in STAGE 3, which means his liver disease has reverted back to FIBROSIS, AND NOT CIRRHOSIS!

(UPDATE from Ellie: A few weeks after writing this post, I took a look at this chart - also shown below, on this page, and according to the chart, technically, my husband is in stage TWO, not three. True, he's "on the cusp" but technically 9.4 is the marker for Stage 3, and Jake's score is 9.37!) 

I do realize it is still somewhat serious to have fibrosis (and if you have any type of fibrosis - which still means liver disease - you should still be under a doctor's care), so we don't take this lightly, and we DO plan to continue doing what we can, to heal his liver as much as possible. But I am just so relieved to know that he really was able to reverse his cirrhosis.*

That's right... let me say this loud and clear....

HE NO LONGER HAS CIRRHOSIS!

I am not able to use the word cure. So I cannot say his liver disease has been "cured" by the water or anything else. I'm saying, look at his results, I can tell you what he did, and you are feel free to draw your own conclusions. If you asked for my personal opinion on what gave him these results, I'd say, in my opinion, the water had a lot to do with it, but I can't make medical claims and don't have the $ to do a double blind medical study.  The thing I need to study is my husband, as I have been for 4 years, and something gave him these results.

I spoke with someone who worked for Fibroscan, who told me that yes, the score is calculated by getting an average of the numbers. He did say that usually there are 10 numbers, and I'm not sure why my husband just had 4.  But whatever the case, the doctor did confirm that he is no longer in Stage 4 (so he no longer has cirrhosis).

I am hoping that as long as he continues to do what he is doing (and add green juice and shakes back into his diet), he may even be able to have a normal liver again. One thing that I learned from Dr. Andrew Weil is that the body has a tremendous capacity to heal itself, and I'm a definite believer!

 I'm not a doctor and cannot make medical claims, and will not make medical claims. And I also need to tell you that if you have any degree of fibrosis or cirrhosis, you are supposed to be under a doctor's care.

Where to get a Fibroscan: 

If you live in the US, go to:

http://www.fibroscan502touch.com/find-a-facility

If you live in Canada, go to: 

http://www.liverscan.ca/

In case you are wondering how much it costs, I know the costs may vary in different areas but we were told it costs $413.00... BUT we were also told that because my husband doesn't have insurance, they will give him a 40% discount if he pays within 30 days. So the cost was more like $248.00. His specialist charges between $800 and $1200 per hour, but because it was a follow-up visit, it was less. Our total bill, for the follow up plus the fibroscan came out to about $589.00. Which is why we waited so long to do it... we had to save up! But still... overall, it was less than I thought it would cost.  It should be a lot less if you have insurance.

Learning to Read a Fibroscan

I still need to figure this out, but it sounds like the number in parenthesis is for an "m/s" score... and I'm having a hard time understanding what the "m" stands for (millimeter? micron?) but the "S" appears to stand for "second." So, it would mean _____ (mm or whatever) per second.

Although I do like Jake's doctor, he didn't seem particularly interested in educating us about what the different scores meant. I can't completely say that I blame him. As much as I do try to be sweet and polite while I'm there, it's hard to completely hide how smug I feel about the progress Jake has made with alternative treatments, when doctors seemed just as smug with US... telling him over and over again that he was going to need a transplant, and that he'd probably have to go on disability!  

I've heard over and over again that "there is no way to reverse cirrhosis." Now I can finally, officially say, THAT'S Bull****!

It's got to be annoying to spend all those years in medical school, only to have some random patient's wife with no college degree, come along and insinuate that her husband was able to reverse his cirrhosis without pharmaceutical drugs or medical supervision.

Jake's doctor definitely seemed surprised by his results, and he actually called the elastographer into the room to double check on the report. I couldn't help having a flashback to the time they weighed Jake and they made him go into another room to use a different scale, because he had gained so much weight back so quickly, the nurse thought there must be something wrong with the scale! As I said before... it wasn't thescale that needed fixing... it was their treatment protocols!

I am hopeful that he will be able to reduce his cirrhosis even further. I will be making him green shakes again, and he will continue to drink the water, and he will continue to do PEMF (we're going to upgrade to a top of the line machine we found out can be financed for just $50 a month). I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but I'm going to anyway... Jake's diet is not the best. He eats a ton of candy and sweets so it's almost kind of shocking that his results are as good as they are. I DO NOT recommend you do the same. I don't have the best diet right now either, and I've been blaming it on stress. I realize we both slacked a lot because we thought, oh, we have this great water so we don't have to watch what we eat so much, but that WILL get you in trouble over the long run. I know we really need to get back to eating healthy, and I plan to go back to making shakes for the hubby on a daily basis!

Stage

A 5-point scale is used in grading the degree of liver fibrosis:

• F0= no fibrosis
• F1= minimal fibrosis
• F2= fibrosis has occurred and spread inside the areas of the liver including blood vessels
• F3= fibrosis is spreading and connecting to other liver areas that contain fibrosis
• F4= cirrhosis or advance liver fibrosis

- See more at: http://hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com/fibroscan-results-the-scoring-card.html#sthash.A4O0pGud.dpuf

Fibroscan scoring card 
Keeping this in mind, we can use the Fibroscan scoring card to convert  Fibroscan results measured in (kPa) into the Metavir scale F1-F4. 

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- See more at: 

Located on the bottom of the Fibroscan scoring card is Fibroscan results in (kPa) measurements 0-75, more accurately Fibroscan results range from 2.5 kPa to 75 kPa. Between 90–95% of healthy people without liver disease will have a liver scarring measurement less then 7.0 kPa (median is 5.3 kPa).

A person with chronic hepatitis C and a liver stiffness more then 14 kPa has approximately a 90% probability of having cirrhosis, while patients with liver stiffness more then 7 kPa have around an 85% probability of at least significant fibrosis. 

However,  research has shown Fibroscan accuracy in assessing lower degrees of liver fibrosis (F1-F2) is not as reliable compared to diagnosing advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis (F3/F4) - See more at: http://hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com/fibroscan-results-the-scoring-card.html#sthash.A4O0pGud.dpuf

Fibroscan Scoring Card

Two Examples of people with liver disease:

A fibroscan score of  8.2 in "hepatitis C "  is the same as fibrosis stage 1-2 or (F1- F2) as shown in the color coded scale.

A fibroscan of 12.2  in a patient with "alcoholic liver disease" is borderline cirrhosis or (F3) .

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- See more at: http://hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com/fibroscan-results-the-scoring-card.html#sthash.A4O0pGud.dpuf

In trying to understand how to read a fibroscan, I listened to this video below, which explains it a little more. 

If you want to learn more about why I recommend Jake's "special water," you can go to:

http://healing-liver-cirrhosis.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-special-water-helped-my-husband.html

If you want to request more information about the water and other things he did over the last few years, go to: http://healing-liver-cirrhosis.blogspot.com/2016/01/if-youre-looking-for-information-about_15.html

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Today I learned of a 7th person who died from cirrhosis, and in my opinion, this shouldn't have to ever happen to anyone.  I'm hoping more and more people will somehow be able to get the results my husband did.

Ellie