HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

New to this forum and alcoholic cirrhosis

Support Forums
>
Hepatitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
1 2
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 3/31/2014 9:35 PM (GMT 0)
I didn’t know if I should continue posting here or begin a new thread?

I had my 3 month check up last Friday. This is the beginning of try #2 at getting evaluated. Liver enzymes are up some in my blood work. Liver is down 4 fingers below my ribcage. Meld 19. The doctor’s reaction was sort of monotone – I never know what that means. Is it just the way he is, or is it bad and he can’t really do anything anyway until I get evaluated? No ascites or edema. He lowered my spironolactone to 25 mg on a trial basis.

I have an appointment on Wed as a follow up with the cardiologist. He has to re-check 2 things because several months have gone by since the first try. I have a nurse assigned to me and the Dr. voice-emailed her his notes and recommendation to TP while I was in appt with him.

I have been up to this point before. I am a little more educated now. I even asked the question I had been in denial about (because I hadn’t seen it on my records and so I had convinced myself I was not labeled so)….Do I have esld and what stage cirrhosis? Stupid of me, I know. But, I can’t be in denial anymore.

Just having a lot of emotions.
Posted 4/1/2014 5:06 PM (GMT 0)
EyesRopen, If they have sent you forward to be evaluated for TP, and your MELD is 19, you are i jthe right pew. Depending on where you live and what center you are being treated at, transplants in the US are given in the low to mid 20s in some states and in the low to mid 30s in others.

If you were fully decompensated at this point you would: have brown urine, have a higher MELD score, likely ascites or edema in legs, have eposides of Hepatic Encephalopathy (the fog that can come from the liver not clearing wastes from you blood and those wastes -- like ammonia -- going to the brain), you would be tired all the time, often confuse day with night...crazy sleep cycles, and likely have difficulty wiht driving and decision making.

They can tell a lot from blood tests, scans, MRIs, etc.

I think the tests for translant will answer your questions about fibrosis vs cirrhosis staging.

about the denial thing...your bloods will show the doc whether or not you have a sober lifestyle. They will do a tox evaluation for everything. I fyou are drinking alcohol, they will push you back 6 months while you attend regularly an alcohol cessation program.

I know this because my partner, Mike, had a MELD of 24 when he arrived for his TP consultation, but he had only been absteant a few weeks. They told him he was so ill they would keep him in hospital until a doner liver came though...but that all stopped when he had to do the 6 months. We didnt know if he could liver for that 6 months. And they found a tumor. that was a rough 6 months.

I don't know your status, and make no judgements, but just so you know if it comes up.

Staying with this thread will work. I had to go back to some of your older posts to remind myself of your story. Maybe yould could remind us a bit more about your Viral Load, how long you have had Hep, which genotype, etc. And which state you are in.

Good luck to you...Let us hear from you,

Mama Lama
Posted 4/2/2014 2:49 PM (GMT 0)
WELCOME eyesRopen! You are in the right place. Some really good people here.

I've fought with alcohol abuse from age 12 all the way until I turned age 48. Proud to say I will be 6 years sober this summer and this is the first time I've really wanted to quit. I tried AA and rehab several times, but it actually made me want to drink more. I finally figured out I had to do it for myself or die. If you have 7 months sober, you have proven you can beat it. I know one drink could continue the path to a miserable death. My grandfather drank himself to death before age 50, and my very best friend drank himself to death at age 52.

I never have an appetite and got really tired of taking prescribed pills that did little but make me feel worse, so I made the move to a legal medical marijuana state. I went from 148lbs to 175lbs within just a few months and ditched all those sickening pills. I'm on Sovaldi treatment for 12 weeks, after that I hope I never see another pill in my life.

GOOD LUCK!! KEEP US POSTED!! STAY SOBER!!

Life is so much better without hangovers.

 

✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
12