“What is autoimmune hepatitis?”
My son is 35 years old and was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis. What is this disease?
2 Answers
This is a disease where, for unknown (and likely unknowable) reasons, the body's immune system starts to attack the liver, causing inflammation and tissue damage. Treatment usually involves medications to suppress the immune system.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/autoimmune-hepatitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20352153
The real question is, how bad is the case that HE has, because everybody has it differently. It may be a minor nuisance or mean a lot of time spent with doctors and sometimes in the hospital.
I know you want a medical answer, but the best advice I can give him is to make sure he has good insurance. There will be a lot of blood work and other tests, and some of the treatments can be expensive. He needs a good specialist in liver disease (hepatologist), preferably one based at a medical school where everything is as up to date as possible (and if he has a severe case, they can get him into a transplant program).
No alcohol is a common instruction, though if he drinks something by mistake it's not that big a deal. He needs to keep working fulltime as long as he can, and think really hard about changing jobs (since insurance companies can be mean about "pre-existing conditions").
The real question is, how bad is the case that HE has, because everybody has it differently. It may be a minor nuisance or mean a lot of time spent with doctors and sometimes in the hospital.
I know you want a medical answer, but the best advice I can give him is to make sure he has good insurance. There will be a lot of blood work and other tests, and some of the treatments can be expensive. He needs a good specialist in liver disease (hepatologist), preferably one based at a medical school where everything is as up to date as possible (and if he has a severe case, they can get him into a transplant program).
No alcohol is a common instruction, though if he drinks something by mistake it's not that big a deal. He needs to keep working fulltime as long as he can, and think really hard about changing jobs (since insurance companies can be mean about "pre-existing conditions").
