meld or na meld score?

[rexx73]

hello,

my meld score has gone up from 7 to 9 in the last 3 months,
when i calculate it with the na meld (add of sodium )its 10.
does anybody know what meld score is more accurate?

and,does an increase of the score mean a progeression of the liver disease?
my meld has gone up cause my bilirubin has increased and the inr also(from 1 to 1.1.
today i got the labs from the last check and the transplant center seems not to be concernd about the bilirubin and my situation at all and they still believe my liver will improve over time,but the labs and my symptoms say the opposite.
it scares me to see my meld has gone up as it should go down after reaching svr.

any ideas or opinions are welcome
marc

[Dee1956]

p.s. before treating my liver enzymes were in the 80's and 90's, after tx, relapse the first time they were in the 400's 500's I thought I was dying.  My neutrophils and my lymphocytes took well over 8 months to normalize

[Dee1956]

I am so very sorry, I don't know why I had it in my head that you had finished in April.
I would like to say that it took me more than 6 months to recover, I assumed that was because the ribavirin stays in the body for 6 months, at least they advise women not to get pregnant for at least 6 months after treating.

Along the way I started taking something called NADH which helped me with my energy levels very much.  A few people on here took it as well and they said it helped them within a few days to 10 days.
Much of what I did was trial and error.  Some things helped others didn't.

Please don't give up hope.  I think I know how you feel, the first time I treated I was UND from week 4 all the way to 6 weeks after tx, I relapsed New Years Eve 2008/2009  My numbers were awful, worse than before tx.  It took me 18 months to get back to my normal self. Along the way, 6 months post, I was removed from my job because I could not tell them when I would be better.

I am going to try to conduct some searches for you, see what I can come up with
Dee

[rexx73]

hi dee,
thanks for your answer.
i finished tx 6 months ago,but i still feel more and more ill.to be honest i think my liver became more bad from the treatment as it was before and will no more be able to heal or improve..
i dont wanna say that without treatment my liver would be in better shape maybe it would be even more bad without doing tx.
but i can definetly feel my condition is becoming more and more bad.
all people around me dont believe me, even the docs,but i can feel that something is happen to me from what iam sure its from advanced cirrhosis.
i was so hopefull when i started tx that my liver can improve again,but it seems it turned the other way.

marc

[Dee1956]

Hi Rex, didn't you recently finish tx?  I am sorry I can't remember exactly but I thought you were just a few weeks from tx.
If so that can cause numbers to go up and down until they normalize.
Also for the first 6 months or so after tx I had pain.  I think it was recovering from tx.
I know I had muscle wasting during tx.  I could see my skin was hanging.  Now I am over one year post tx and everything is coming back in line.
The only one that is still low is the platelets and I guess that is from the cirrhosis

Good luck
Dee

[rexx73]

thanks hector for your answer,hope youre doing fine.

[HectorSF]

The MELD score does NOT include sodium.
There are there blood levels that are used.
Bilirubin
Creatinine
INR

MELD score go up and down just as all blood levels do. But your MELD score to so low it really makes no difference as MELD score is only used when a person is on a transplant wait list. SOme with SVR you will bever had to do.

inr also (from 1 to 1.1). Is basically NO change. Levels change all the time. For many labs the normal INR range is 0.9 - 1.2. so your INR is normal. Doesn't get any better than normal.
The transplant center is correct "the transplant center seems not to be concerned about the bilirubin and my situation at all and they still believe my liver will improve over time".

You are worrying about nothing there is no real tangible difference between  a MELD score of 7 and 9. MELD score is used by transplant centers to measure who gets a transplant first.

Early cirrhosis and usually has no symptoms at all. Any symptoms are probably related to hep C or hep C treatment not liver disease as you have very little. On a MELD score scale of 6-40 it is obvious the 7 or 8 are very close to what a normal healthy persons MELD score is (6). The next time your MELD score is measured it will probably be different again.

Listen to your doctors. If you have questions ask them and believe them. IF they are used to working with people that need transplants your case is quite simple and straight forward compared to what they noramlly deal with.
Hector