Posted on 07/03/2012 8:29:13 PM PDT by fourth and three
My heart goes out to you. Thank you for your honesty and courage in opening up about your condition. You do have a lot to live for with a six year old daughter. She will always need you regardless of the bad decisions that may have brought you to this point.
I am a cardiac nurse and have had this conversation with many patients facing their life as you are now. You now have a choice to make about the path of your life from this point forward. Your body is frail and only your strength of will can change it. The medical team can assist, but in the end, only you can change the outcome. Accept the past and change the future.
Cirrosis of the liver has a poor prognosis because the patient is usually not willing to make changes in lifestyle that can improve their health. It is difficult but you alone must decide whether you are willing to participate in healing your liver or continue on an ugly path of liver failure.
Educate yourself on liver functions and health. You can make changes that will allow the liver to heal. Become the captain of the team of doctors and nurses with the goal of being alive for your daughter and fulfilling your purpose. Even if you fall to extend your time you can extend your legacy.
Choose to become who you were meant to be and maybe you can extend the time you get to be that man.
Avoid using pain relievers tha contain aspirin or especially NSAIDs. Limit yourself to acetamenophen only, and even that carries some risk so keep it to a bare minimum. Alternative therapies using SAMe and/or Milk Thistle may be helpful, please research the matter thoroughly and consult yoir doctor before actually pursuing either of these.
SAMe has proven benefit for liver function, numerous clinical studies bear this out. It also has several other beneficial effects. It stabilizes or even enhances mood, and it’s helpful with inflammatory joint and connective tissue disorders. It’s available over the counter in the vitamin and supplement section of Walmart as far as an affordable source. More options at stores such as GNC.
Beyond these, I hope you’ve found the strength to discontinue the use of alcohol.
Yes, I was going to suggest silymarin,(Milk Thistle) too. It’s great for the liver.
Milk Thistle seed, schizandra, bupleurum.
You can help yourself a lot, and quite affordably.
Do not drink another drop. And look into Milk Thistle Supplements- cheap at Walmart.
...and add some Burdock root..
You can grow it yourself in 5 gallon plastic pots from seeds....the root will spiral around and is easy to remove...otherwise growing Burdock in the garden the root keeps on going down and is a major task to remove.
(above ground it looks like a thistle.)
First of all I am so sorry you have to go through this, my thoughts and prayers go out to you and your little girl
My suggestion to you is to start looking at family members and friends who might be potential donors. The liver is an amazing organ, a person only has to give half their liver to you and in a span of a few months it regrows back to its normal size, same would happen to you. So that is what I would start doing first, the sooner the better, that way you can get the transplant done while you are still physically strong enough to do the operation. You don’t want to do it when your so weak it will be difficult for you to tolerate the surgery.
Your in my thoughts and prayers, God Bless
“An important antioxidant, glutathione, or GSH, cannot be used as a supplement because this substance cannot directly enter the cells threatened by oxidative stress. However, researchers are using a precursor compound, the molecule S–adenosylmethionine (SAMe), which can enter the cells and then break down to form the helpful antioxidant. When SAMe was given to patients with alcoholic cirrhosis in a clinical trial, they were significantly less likely to die or require a liver transplant within the next 2 years, compared with patients who had received an inactive substance (that is, a placebo) (19). Moreover, the study detected virtually no harmful side effects of SAMe treatment. Thus, this approach appears to hold promise for the treatment of patients with ALD (20)”
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa64/aa64.htm
You should also be taking glycine. The Study Of Therapeutical Effects And Mechanism Of Glycine On Hepatic Fibrosis And Cirrhosis In Rats
He might be a little out there, but you should read Ray Peat.
These are all things you can do in parallel with the doctors. Good Luck!
The liver illness results from the continuous irritation as a result of processing the alcohol. The liver is capable of taking quite a bit of abuse processing all kinds of materials in the diet. However the continual abuse causes the new growth in the liver to be somewhat a form of scar tissue that does not allow for normal fluid movement through the liver. Develop enough of that material and you have Cirrhosis, and there are various stages. Your symptoms indicate that it is pretty advanced if you are having the swelling and fluid retention. At some point a transplant may be the only option.
However, there are a few things you can try to do to possibly improve the situation. These are pretty safe and not radical in any way. Look at using a few supplements. "Google around" a bit for more information on these as they are not part of the general medical advice. Look at Curcumin as something the has wide ranging benefits for reducing inflammation and possibly reverse early stage Cirrhosis. A couple of cups of Green Tea every day may also help along the same lines. Include a couple of grams of the Fish Oil with the higher values for the EPA and DHA. Take a daily dose of 5,000 IU of Vitamin D. Also Google up information on Bruce Ames + Alpha Lipoic Acid + NAC + Milk Thistle + Liver. I have found some very interesting information available at the website of Science Daily. They provide the press releases that announce the study results. At the Science Daily site there is a search feature that you can use to look at study results for the last ten years. Search there for Liver, then Cirrhosis, then Curcumin, then Green Tea.
One other bit of general diet advice is to suggest that you look at the work of Gary Taubes. The general idea is that the high quantities of grains and sugars in the diet cause a somewhat general form of inflamation, causing much of the obesiety problem in the US. They also increase the daily continuous liver stress factors. I believe that Taubes is really on to something worthwhile.
And finally, I do wish you good luck in dealing with the Cirrhosis. The human body is a pretty amazing system that is still poorly understood in how it functions. There is quite a bit of new information being discovered weekly. Most of the MDs were trained to burn it or cut it to solve the problem. That is really not a great way to go for treatment, unless absolutely necessary, when dealing with the liver. I believe there are some other routes to try before doing that.
prayers for you
I’m no doctor, but I think acetamenophen (Tylenol) is not something a person with compromised liver function needs to be ingesting.
Prayers for you.
“Use over-the-counter medications carefully. Liver cirrhosis makes it more difficult for your liver to remove drugs from your system. For this reason, ask your doctor before taking any medications, including nonprescription drugs. In general, avoid aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others) and naproxen (Aleve, others). If you have liver damage, your doctor may recommend acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) in low doses for pain relief, though this drug carries some liver risks, too.”
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cirrhosis/DS00373/DSECTION=lifestyle%2Dand%2Dhome%2Dremedies
I am a Medical Technician.
We dispense medications to patients under a doctors order.
I would STRONGLY recommend that the use of Tylenol be eliminated altogether in this situation.
Be careful of cough and cold remedies that can have Tylenol in them also.
Don’t touch another drop of alcohol as long as you live.
My Dad had cirrhosis from heavy drinking, and it wasn’t pretty.
I will pray for you very hard Fourth and three.
God Bless.
I read a medical artical and it said that asparagus helped repair and help liver damage from alchohol. If this is true, I would stop drinking and take asparagus pills and eating fresh asparagus at least until I recieced the transplant. I know that they will not even put you on a transplant list until you stop drinking.
The power of the liver to regenerate itself is amazing.
Acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) must be avoided for sure; it's real nasty on the liver. Look for it in all sorts of medications.
I don’t know of a solution although I believe the liver can heal itself and I think Milk Thistle capsules will help. Do research that before taking them.
Praying now for your healing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.