[Hawaii Bill]

Originally Posted by runner

Interesting.... When I was first diagnosed in 2005, I had chest pain and pain/pressure in the upper left quadrant of my abdomen. No doctor could find a reason for it, and it eventually went away. Also, I use to post on aplastic central (an excellent resource). The users, who seem to mostly have SAA and VSAA, did not experience these symptoms.

Now...a mild discomfort in my upper left abdomen is back, but the abdominal distention and other gi symptoms are far more bothersome. An abdominal x-ray showed that, as my doctor put it, my symptoms are not in my head, but not diagnosis. (Yeah, I had to explain to her that I'm not a big fan of hanging out at medical centers and wouldn't come in unless I was sure. It's fine -- she's actually quite nice.) I'm wondering if other tests (e.g. CT scan, barium upper/lower GI exam) are really worthwhile.

One of the things that my hematologist told me when he first started trying to diagnose the cause of my very low blood counts is that my liver (and maybe my spleen) were enlarged. He told me that they had probably begun trying to make up for my reduced bone marrow function, that when we are babies in the womb, our blood is produced by the liver, IIRC. I don't know if that is the case for you, but I thought I'd throw it out there for you... Good luck!