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Hi All,

First let me thank you for having this support group and second for

allowing me to join. My 45 year old husband was diagnosed with

cryptogenic cirrhosis on March 2nd,06. He thought he had the flu or

food poisioning because he was bloated. He went to his pcp who told

him he was bleeding internally and sent him on to the

gastroentologist the next day. The gasto doc said that he thought he

may have liver disease and said he was going to do a scope. Later

that day the dr. did the scope and called me in before my husband

woke up and told me that our food poisioning was cirrhosis and that

my husband had ascites and esophogeal varices (I had no idea what

either one of these were. He went on to say that he probably would

die if he did not get a liver right away. Needless to say that was

the worse 30 seconds of my life. The bleeding stopped and so they

waited a week and did the banding surgery and put him on a beta

blocker and 2 diuretics and a diet of less than 2,000 mg of sodium

per day. They ran a few blood tests and did an abdominal ultrasound

and an mri of his pancreas. From just these few tests they said he

has cirrhosis and they have no idea why. He has psorasis and the dr.

thinks it may be an auto immune problem,but the test for it was

negative. I asked the dr. what kind of diet other than the low

sodium he needed to be on and he said no other restrictions. In the

meantime I asked him how bad my husbands liver is because the dr.

went from " your husband needs a liver right away! " to he may die

tomorrow or he may live 10-15 years, come back in 6 months. So I

asked him to give me his child pugh rating. He said he is a 2.

Still confused...how can you be only a 2 and not eligible to be put

on the transplant list, but still have ascites and the varices? Can

someone tell me if this all sounds pretty typical or do we need a new

doctor?

I'm sorry this was so long,but it felt good to let it out and again I

appreciate the opportunity to do so. My heart goes out to all of you.