In reality, there are numerous cases of people going to the wrong hospital, seeing the wrong doctor, running to the wrong door, spending money and delaying a lot of time, but more importantly, it is possible to delay the treatment because of “finding the wrong door”, and this loss is sometimes difficult to make up. It is unfortunate to have liver disease, but it is even more unfortunate when it is delayed.
A. Medical examination is the best way to detect liver disease early
According to my experience, nearly 1/3 of the patients with chronic hepatitis B are found through annual physical examinations of units, physical examinations for higher education or schooling, and premarital examinations, among which there are many who have delayed the good time to cure the disease. The above facts show that the annual screening of hepatitis is the most important part of the disease.
The above facts illustrate the importance of annual comprehensive physical examinations to detect liver diseases that are not clinically evident and can only be confirmed by blood tests. Nowadays, the problem of food and clothing has been solved in most areas of China, and there is sufficient medical foundation and economic conditions to pay attention to the liver and detect liver diseases in advance. It is necessary to spend several hundred dollars to have an annual check-up including blood tests, ECG, imaging and physical examination by a doctor at a regular hospital or medical examination center.
If you can’t afford to spend money on medical checkups, then many liver diseases will cost more money in the future due to late detection and treatment, or even no rule of law due to delays, which can be regrettable. For example, there is a Mr. Shi, engaged in catering work, more than ten years ago unit colleagues saw his face is relatively obscure, suggesting that he take blood tests, and he stubbornly believes that he feels all good, into the unit when the physical examination “two to half test is negative”, will not have liver disease. More than a decade passed, and one day his family found that the whites of his eyes were yellow, and then he went to the hospital for a detailed examination, only to find that he had cirrhosis of the liver, and his regrets were no longer helpful.
The development of liver disease often occurs in such a silent and unnoticed formation. It is really silent!
Second, choose the right hospital, department and doctor can “get twice the result with half the effort”
You must choose the right hospital for your liver disease. You have to choose the level and nature of the hospital (general hospital or specialist hospital) according to the simplicity or complexity of the liver disease, initial diagnosis or retreatment, mild or severe, clear or unclear cause, etc. Avoid choosing a hospital by mistake because you don’t know the “truth”. The following three points are for reference: First, do not believe in advertising. At present, there are many specialized hospitals advertised in various media, and there is no shortage of good hospitals with standardized management, but the quality is mixed, and false propaganda in advertisements can be seen everywhere, including false experts, false drugs, and false treatments.
Recently, a hospital claimed to be able to cure hepatitis B in January through a certain treatment, which is pure nonsense and absolutely impossible. A well-managed hospital will not advertise in the public media at will, and even if it introduces a certain treatment, it will never use words such as “guaranteed to turn negative after taking a course of treatment” or “no refund for treatment”. Imagine, the drug is approved by the State Food and Drug Administration, the pharmaceutical company legal price to provide a special commodity, how can not because of the ineffectiveness of the patient to return the drug?
A “major disease” must be treated in a major hospital. Unexplained liver disease, refractory liver disease and critical liver disease must be seen in high level hospitals. It is undeniable that the majority of “big doctors” in big hospitals are still highly skilled compared to lower level hospitals. This is not difficult to understand, each hospital grade is determined by its own overall strength, characteristics, expert team and management. If the liver disease is clear, the condition is not serious, the treatment plan has been determined, the purpose of seeing a doctor is only to regularly review certain indicators, or routine dispensing, then there is no need to wait in long lines at large hospitals for large specialists.
Choose the right department to see the doctor. General hospitals have several departments responsible for the treatment of liver disease. Internal medicine includes gastroenterology, infection and liver disease; surgery includes general surgery, hepatobiliary surgery, liver transplantation, oncology and so on. It is sometimes difficult to determine exactly which department to choose to see for which liver disease. As the division of labor in medicine is becoming more and more detailed, even within the scope of internal medicine, the phenomenon of interdisciplinarity is very common.
Suggestions: for hepatitis, especially viral hepatitis (cirrhosis), the first choice is hepatology or infection; for cirrhosis, you should generally see hepatology or infection; you can also see gastroenterology. For liver occupancy, mainly see surgery, but before the nature of the occupancy is clear, it is better to make a diagnosis in hepatology, infection and gastroenterology first, once the diagnosis is confirmed, internal medicine doctors will take the initiative to assist in the referral to surgery; many patients at first only know that the transaminases are elevated, “liver function” abnormal, and do not know the cause, then it is recommended to see the infection department first or Hepatology.
Choosing a doctor is not an easy task either. Nowadays, the electronic network is very advanced. If you type in a particular type of liver disease on Baidu, not only will many hospitals’ names pop up quickly, but also the names and descriptions of many specialists.
Be sure to please note that.
First, it is still important to link the doctor to the hospital he or she is working at. Of course, this does not mean that there are no famous (good) doctors in hospitals that are not famous;
Second, find out the doctor’s specialty, and then choose a doctor with the appropriate specialty according to the type of liver disease you have;
Third, the number of scientific achievements, papers published, and administrative positions of doctors are not criteria for judging the level of doctors;
Fourth, the academic position (mainly refers to the position of the medical association at all levels) does not necessarily represent the medical level; fifth, in general, the medical age and medical level is proportional, but not necessarily, need to be a comprehensive evaluation. We recommend that you refer to. Remember: the more flamboyant the advertising words, the more advertising, often the less reliable.
Third, regular monitoring and follow-up is very important
According to the doctor’s requirements, during treatment or observation, it is necessary to regularly monitor certain indicators or do certain tests, which are no less necessary than the monitoring of blood sugar in diabetic patients or electrocardiogram in patients with coronary heart disease. For example, after a patient with chronic hepatitis B takes antiviral treatment, the doctor will definitely instruct the patient to regularly check the liver function, “two-to-one” and hepatitis B virus DNA, not only to observe the effect of treatment, but also to monitor whether drug resistance or relapse occurs, so as to deal with it in time.
Otherwise, it will either ruin the previous work or make the follow-up treatment very difficult. For example, after surgical treatment of liver cancer patients, most of them are required to have regular methotrexate and liver imaging tests, the purpose of which is to monitor whether the liver cancer recurs, the importance of which cannot be overstated. There are also certain acute liver diseases that necessitate multiple follow-ups before they are cured, such as acute hepatitis B. Although long-term treatment is not required, follow-ups are necessary during the recovery period to see if the disease has transformed into chronic hepatitis B and to develop further treatment plans in due course.
As you can see, regular review after the correct diagnosis and treatment of liver disease, as prescribed by the doctor, is also a process that should not be taken lightly.
Fourth, home medication needs to be prepared carefully
Whether it is acute or chronic liver disease, treatment drugs are very special and targeted, completely different from the treatment of cold and fever, headache, diarrhea, bruises and other drugs, do not advocate the family medicine box is routinely equipped with drugs for liver disease, and oppose the practice of one person with liver disease the whole family share liver disease drugs. In terms of broad categories, drugs for liver disease can be divided into enzyme-lowering, liver-protecting, anti-yellowing and anti-viral drugs, and in recent years, there are also anti-fibrosis and anti-cirrhosis drugs, the most easily subjective abuse of these drugs are enzyme-lowering and liver-protecting drugs.
Some people may be found to have abnormal transaminases during an occasional physical examination, they often do not first go to the hospital to find out the cause of the disease, but self-take enzyme-lowering and liver-protective drugs, thinking that the transaminases down to normal is fine, this approach is extremely wrong, and will therefore cover the true face of liver disease and the severity, thus delaying diagnosis and treatment, such lessons are not uncommon, we must be cautioned.
On the one hand, we should understand the dangers of abusing liver disease drugs, on the other hand, we should check our home medicine cabinet, and finally, we should draw attention to the fact that we should not buy liver disease drugs from pharmacies without a hospital diagnosis and a doctor’s prescription.