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liver cirrhosis from hepititis C

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Posted 1/4/2008 6:14 PM (GMT 0)
okay so my grandmas 80 years old she was in the hospital for a good month or so from vomiting blood as well as loosing blood in her stool causing her to pass out... finaly we trasferd her into manhatten and then tryed to fix the problem with corterizing vessiles on her stomach.... shes been home for 2-3 weeks and shes retaining fluid for the 2nd time since shes been out of the hospital.... she was out of it yeaterday not knowing where she was and what she was doing. we took her back to hospital after 6 men picked her up because she had no energy... we think its cirrhosis of liver but not possitive until she stable enough to have biopsy.. shes not an alchohlic she has HEP-C for years... what i would like to knw is..... without a transplant how long does she have left
Posted 1/4/2008 7:43 PM (GMT 0)
Carm53, I am so sorry your grandmother is having such a hard time. Nobody can really predict how long she has without a transplant. Given her age, she may not be a good candidate for surgery of that magnitude. A lot depends on how well she has been taking care of herself, in terms of not drinking alcohol, eating nutritiously, getting enough rest, etc. Also on whether she has other medical issues, such as heart problems or diabetes. Being "out of it" sounds as though she has encephalopathy. The fluid retention is ascites. I am sure the docs will do what they can for her. However, someone in the family needs to get Power of Attorney and Power of Medical Attorney, so that medical info can be obtained and decisions made.

Hugs,
Connie
Posted 1/4/2008 8:31 PM (GMT 0)

Carm53, I am so sorry about your grandmother's health issues. I feel for you. I know that we would like to FIX those that we love when they are ill or in pain but the reality is that we can only do so much and then it is out of our hands. We are all here for you!Connie was correct in everything she said. Never give up hope and tell her how much you love her. Even tho she is "Out of it" she can still hear you. People can hear us even when they are in coma so don't be afraid to talk to her. No one can predict exactly how long someone has to live. The best we can do from a medical professional's point is give an estimate. Even then we can be wrong so you may find some resistence from the DR's telling you what they think. I will pray for her and for you. Stay strong honey.

Connie, your advise was right on the mark. People don't think about medical power of attorney unless they are advised to do it. That was the best advise you could give. Also, you are 100% correct with the medical advise you gave. We never know what the future holds for any of us.

 Shelly

Posted 1/5/2008 12:19 AM (GMT 0)
Carm53, Welcome to the forum. I am so sorry to hear about your grandmother. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Posted 1/7/2008 5:43 PM (GMT 0)
thanx guys for the replys... she doing a little beter as far as being "out of it" because they drained the fluids out.. and as far as the medical atterney thing u guys were talking about she doesnt speak engish so the doctor explain it all to her children, but theres been so much confeusion with what was going on prior to thinking it was cirrhosis that we were all not sure what to belive... but thanx for all your help

Posted 1/7/2008 6:28 PM (GMT 0)
Carm, you are very welcome. Glad to hear your grandma is doing a little better. :)

Connie
Posted 1/7/2008 11:18 PM (GMT 0)
Carm, I am really glad to hear that your grandmother is doing better. I will keep her in my prayers.
Posted 1/10/2008 4:57 PM (GMT 0)
Hello Carm53

I am new to this forum.

My dad age 83, he passed away in Dec 10 2007.  Dr. confirmed he got final stage of cirrhosis in Aug 20 2007.  He only lived for another 3 months. 

He been admitted to hospital 4 times since May 2007.  The most recent one was Aug 2007 and he stayed in the hospital for 3+ months. 

He got internal bleeding in Aug 20 2007 and in coma for 3 days.  The Dr. said he will not recovery and due to his age they are not recommended to do and transplant. After that he go the down the hill very fast.  His urine output decrease and colour changed to brown, and later more darker brown.  His skin colour changed too (jaundice).  He got the first tummy fluid accumulation around mid of Sep 2007.  Someday better someday not.  He is itchy and complaint of pain around the tummy area all the time.  The Dr don't want to drain any fluid from his tummy if he don't have to.  He first time the Dr. drain his fluid was Nov 20 - 4 litres.  He felt better and Dr. finally let him go home on Nov 23. 

He back to the hospital again in Dec 4 due to fluid accumulation again.  They drained him 6L on that day.  At that time the Dr said his kidney is weak as well.  They drained him again on Dec 7 but they can see some blood in the fluid that they drained out.  He suffered great pain on Dec 8 and Dec 9.  His stool got some blood too.  They drained him again the morning of Dec 10 and after 2L of fluid they stopped.  They see more blood this time.  They also noticed that some fluid gone to his lunge that caused him breathing problem.  He passed away in the afternoon of Dec 10.

A lot of time for patient that got cirrhosis die because of other organ failure or fluid go to the lunge.  These are the symptons and my dad got all except fever. 

Symptoms

Additional symptoms that may be associated with this disease:

Posted 1/10/2008 11:30 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Jyau, Welcome to the forum. I am so sorry to hear about the suffering your father endured. Know that he is in a better place now and will never have to suffer again. My heart goes out to you. You will be in my prayers.
Posted 1/10/2008 11:39 PM (GMT 0)
thnx for the reply jyau... well u see she has yet to have a liver biopsy because doctors in new york love to make a family crazy... but shes had most of all the symptoms already... althogh her skin has yet to turn yellow as some say happen and i dont think her urine collor is too bad ( can see it in bag in hospital) .... shes been drained 2 time already and her ammonia levels hit 165 last time... hopefully the biopsy happens sometime this week as expected but who knows
Posted 1/11/2008 3:23 AM (GMT 0)

carm, they may be holding off on the biopsy because of her bleeding. I don't have all the facts about your grandmothers bleeding episodes but I wouldn't want her to have the biopsy until they know why she is bleeding. Is it esophageal varices?  She could bleed to death if she has a bleeding disorder or the actual biopsy could be too tramatic for her at this time, or they may be hesitant because of her age and the risk factors involved. These are guesses on my part since I don't have all the details on her bleeding. Keep us posted OK?

 Shelly 

Posted 1/11/2008 9:43 PM (GMT 0)
 hi jyau, my father passed away on december 18th of 06 with cirrhosis. we found out about it in july of 2006 he lasted 6 months after.

 but we think he had cirrhosis for a while because he had swelling for at least 6 to 8 years in his legs. and some other problems like bleeding in his intestial track they would take care of it almost every year for at least 7 years but never figured out what was causing it. my father was 87 when we found out he was 88 when he died. he always had a dr apt. everyone was kept but out of three drs not one figured out what was causing the bleeding and one was a GI dr whats that tell you. no drinking or hep c or hep b, we think it could have been maybe meds that caused it or working in a chemical factory for 30 plus years. i do know one thing i wish we would have known a while back we could have made his life more comfortable with diet and maybe differant meds. all the should have or could haves are not going to bring him back, hes in a better place where there is no pain. its been a year but i still miss him. my father had almost all the signs that you have in your post. it was 6 months of pure hell for my dad and his family i wouldnt wish this horrible disease on anybody.

 so sorry about your dad, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

 annette

 

 

Posted 1/15/2008 9:52 PM (GMT 0)

Hello myfather and all,

Actually we knew dad got hepC in about 15 years ago.  He got it from the blood transfer during one of his operation.  At that time the Dr. did not tell us much.  Just told dad not to touch alcohol, raw food and shell fish.  They did not explain to us the possibility that hepC will turn to cirrhosis. 

In 1997, his feet/leg always feels cramp.  We thought he did too much golfing.  In around 2002 his feet started on and off swelling.  The doctor only gave him water pill to get ride of those accumulation.  His blood sugar also high at that time and we thought that his swelling was becasue of diabetic.  The Dr. still never mention to us anything about cirrhosis.  In around 2004, he started to complaine tummy/stomach pain.  We all thought was some problem with his digestive system.  He went to check with so many things and still unable to find out the reason.  In Beg of 2007 he did suffered a minor heart attack.  He don't have any heart problem so we did not aware he did suffered a minor heart attack.  We did tell the Dr. the incident and he did more blood test and found out that his blood count was low from Nov 2006 101, Mar 2007 86 and April 2007 only down to 56.  Dr. decided to give him blood transfusion.  They still don't know what caused all these stuffs. 

In May 2007 one day he really felt the pains around his chest area and insist to go to hospital.  Confirmed he got the heart attack based on the blood test and he did suffered some kind of minor heart attack before as well.  This time still not mention anything about cirrhosis.  Since then, dad needed blood transfusion every 6 weeks because he cannot make enough blood count from his own. He also in/out the hospital for a few times. 

As I mentioned before the Aug 2007 he was addmitted again to the hospital.  This time the Dr finally confirmed to us that Dad is at the end stage of final cirrhosis.  I am wonder if it was not the internal bleeding would they be able to know what wrong with my dad? 

My family did go thru/ a very stressful time since May 2007.  Anyhow, my dad is at a very peaceful place now.  We still miss our dad but all of our family will stay positive to contineous our life.  Thanks for all your support.

All of you are in my thoughts and prayers.

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