What and where is my liver?!

The liver is an organ that is located in the upper
right hand quadrant of the abdomen, just under
the rib cage. It does over 500 functions to keep
the body well.

This is what happens in liver disease.
The liver is made up of cells. These cells make
enzymes. When the liver cells become damaged,
these enzymes can leak out and go higher on the
blood tests results. The immune system of the
body will respond to this damage and cause
inflammation to develop inside the liver.
This causes the liver to enlarge in size.

Some of the causes of liver cell damage are:
alcohol consumption, medication toxification,
chemical exposure, mushroom poisoning,
hereditary conditions, metabolic disorders,
biliary obstruction/malformation/infections,
auto immune disease, viral infection
(like Hepatitis A,B,C), parasite infections,
fatty liver disease, cardiac/vascular problems
tumor/cyst/growth/cancer, and others.

If the cause can be found and stopped early on,
the liver cells may be able to heal. You should
be seeing either a gastroenterologist or hepatologist
now.

If, for some reason, the cause isn't stopped...it
can progress to where the liver cells die off and
form scar tissue inside the liver (which blocks
the flow of blood)...this is then Cirrhosis of the liver.
A progressive, irreversible, unforgiving disease.

He may refer you to a Liver Transplant Center for
an evaluation there for placement on the Transplant
list. To find a Transplant Center close to you,
type the state you live in (in your search engine) and
"transplant center" after that.

You should ask your doctor any and all questions you
have. They are required, by law, to be sure they answer
you so you come to understand more about any disease
you may have...that is what they are being paid for.

Here are some links to learn more about Cirrhosis of the
liver and about the transplant process:
http://www.medicinenet.com/cirrhosis/art…
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cirrhos…
http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/cirr…
http://www.surgery.usc.edu/divisions/hep…
http://www.transplantliving.org/
http://www.ustransplant.org
You only need to click on these links to go to the sites.

Hope this information is of some help to you.
Best wishes

caregiver to a liver transplant patient

The best thing to do is to go to Wikipedia and look it up. It will tell you all about the liver and what it does. The liver has over 500 functions in our body with filtering toxins being one of the most important jobs. My doctor told me I also had to get a transplant and she was right. I would be dead right now if I hadn't gotten one. It's something you should take very seriously. Your next step should be that the doctor should send you to a transplant clinic to get evaluated for a possible liver transplant. That's the first step. Everyone getting a transplant has to go through an evaluation first to see if they really need a transplant and whether or not they can qualify to get one. Good luck to you.

liver transplant recipient

Your liver is just under your ribs on your right side - the upper right part of your abdomen.

Your liver helps to get rid of: toxins from alcohol and drugs, waste products and other poisonous substances.
It helps to digest food by releasing bile. It stores glycogen (which can be broken down in to glucose to give your body energy). As well as this, it produces proteins which are essential to make your blood clot when you have a cut.
It also does a lot of other jobs, which is why it is so important to the body.

Here is a website [a PDF file] on the liver and hepatitis: http://www.hepb.org/pdf/the_liver.pdf
And another one just on the liver: http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/health/14544…

I hope I helped =]

Those two websites =]