Bilirubin high in urine..anyone heard of this?

vicky19
vicky19 Member Posts: 4
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi everyone. Long time since I have posted but I have been here nonetheless. Quick question for everyone. My son (35yo) has stage 4 cc with mets to his liver, diagnosed 1/09 and has been doing well until this last visit with his oncologist. The lab work they did before his chemo showed that his bilirubin was high in his urine but not in his blood, all other labs related to his liver were normal. He still received his chemo but they upped his CT and PET scan and also want to do his colonoscopy early....should I be worried? MD states he's not too concerned at this point. If anyone has had this and can ease my mind, I'd sure appreciate it!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Comments

  • NJC
    NJC Member Posts: 73 Member
    Vicky,
    When the liver is not

    Vicky,

    When the liver is not functioning properly the kidneys are forced to clear the bilirubin, which is nothing more than lysed red blood cells. Normally, the liver sends the lysed blood vessels through the common bile duct into the large intestine. When this is not possible, the liver then clears them through the kidneys. However, if the liver function test (LFT) was normal and he's not jaundice then it could be something as simple as inflammation causing the problem. They are more than likely moving up the Pet/CT to see if there is a problem, e.g. blockage of bile duct, etc. Could be something, could be nothing. Need more pieces of the puzzle to know for sure.

    Best advice I can give you would be to not worry about every little thing until you have all of the information. If not, you're gong to drive yourself crazy for the smallest things that don't really matter.

    Best wishes,

    -Joe
  • vicky19
    vicky19 Member Posts: 4
    NJC said:

    Vicky,
    When the liver is not

    Vicky,

    When the liver is not functioning properly the kidneys are forced to clear the bilirubin, which is nothing more than lysed red blood cells. Normally, the liver sends the lysed blood vessels through the common bile duct into the large intestine. When this is not possible, the liver then clears them through the kidneys. However, if the liver function test (LFT) was normal and he's not jaundice then it could be something as simple as inflammation causing the problem. They are more than likely moving up the Pet/CT to see if there is a problem, e.g. blockage of bile duct, etc. Could be something, could be nothing. Need more pieces of the puzzle to know for sure.

    Best advice I can give you would be to not worry about every little thing until you have all of the information. If not, you're gong to drive yourself crazy for the smallest things that don't really matter.

    Best wishes,

    -Joe

    NJC
    Thank you Joe, You are right about driving myself crazy....you hear all of these results but no answer as to why and your mind dreams up all of the worse possible things. I have no choice but to wait for the scans and results so I'll just keep praying for the best. Thanks again for responding.