Hi,

today I had a blood test for hepatitis a. I'm seeing my specialist in two days time. I am fairly certain it will come back positive based on what i've read and the symptoms i'm displaying. In the meantime I was hoping to get some advice about the best thing to do re: diet etc.

Some background - in june I underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy (keyhole surgery to remove gallbladder). The op went well and since then I haven't discovered any combination of fatty food or alcohol that I couldn't handle (i was quite pleased).

On around wednesday last week I started experiencing some general discomfort in the abdominal area. In the days that followed, I had particularly over-indulgent eating patterns (a trip to the coast over the weekend with every meal being quite rich). The discomfort continued but did not appear to be made worse by what I was eating. Driving home on sunday the pain got considerably worse - similar to the intensity of pain pre-surgery. I was thinking "how is this possible?" and "maybe i've got a blocked stone in the common bile duct".

I didn't eat anything on sunday night and my appetite had disappeared completely by monday morning. I had breakfast as normal (cereal and a glass of juice) and went to work. Around lunch time I went to the toilet and noticed that my urine was a spectacularly dark golden colour despite me being in a general state of fatty food de-tox and hydration (i had gone through about 1.5l of water already that day). Today is tuesday and last night I lay awake for hours with abdominal pain.

I went to the specialist today and explained the symptoms. He immediately suspected a hep a infection and commented that I looked a bit yellow (jaundiced). After reading about hep a I realised that I was displaying other symptoms including fatigue (i am a relatively active person but for the last week or so have felt pretty lathargic).

Anyway, i'm having an ultrasound tomorrow morning as well but between now and when I see the doctor again (2 days) I want to know what I should do. I don't have any appetite and the thought of drinking heaps of water is nauseating. As long as it won't adversely affect me I will persist with hydration as I suspect being dehydrated will not help me one bit. It seems that all food consumption results in increased discomfort so i'm thinking as long as i'm eating something of nutritional value I should be okay.

Any advice, tips, or sympathy?