Guest guest Posted January 11, 2007 Report Share Posted January 11, 2007 Hi,everyone.My name is Bobby.I'm a man,43 yrs old.I live in a suburb of Denver. I have cirrhosis.I joined this group a few days ago, but havn't posted until now. I do have some questions. I have what the doctors are saying is " compensated " cirrhosis, but it doesn't FEEL compensated. does anyone have information about encephalopathy? I have this and i'm very scared. I had a blood test for ammonia, and it came back high. Has anyone else had a blood test for ammonia? ________________________________________________________________________________\ ____ Any questions? Get answers on any topic at www.Answers.yahoo.com. Try it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2007 Report Share Posted January 11, 2007 Hey Bobby, Welcome to the group. I can probably answer your questions. First a compensated liver still functions with cirrhosis. Basically the parts of the liver that aren't damaged are doing the job of the parts that are damaged and no longer function. In the US many people live with a compensated liver without even knowing it. While others show and have the symptoms of cirrhosis. For some, cirrhosis never continues to the point of decompensation. A decompensated liver is a liver in failure and can no longer carry out hepatic functions. This in of itself cause a myriad of other problems. As far as encephalopathy, there are five categories. If your doctor as diagnosed you with this you should ask him what stage you are in. Most likely stage 0. The usually treatment is Lactulose. But there are others that doctors use as well depending on the stage of the encephalopathy and the severity of the cirrhosis. 0. Minimal hepatic encephalopathy. Lack of detectable changes in personality or behavior. 1. Trivial lack of awareness. Shortened attention span. Impaired addition or subtraction. Hypersomnia, insomnia, or inversion of sleep pattern. Euphoria, depression, or irritability. Mild confusion. 2. Lethargy or apathy. Disorientation. Inappropriate behavior. Slurred speech. Obvious asterixis. Drowsiness, lethargy, gross deficits in ability to perform mental tasks, obvious personality changes, inappropriate behavior, and intermittent disorientation, usually regarding time. 3. Somnolent but can be aroused, unable to perform mental tasks, disorientation about time and place, marked confusion, amnesia, occasional fits of rage, present but incomprehensible speech 4. Coma with or without response to painful stimuli My wife went through all 5 stages. Sometimes she went back and fourth 1 to 2 to 1 to 3 to 2 etc. Encephalopathy can be completely reversible if the cause of the cirrhosis is removed. Did your doctor put you on lactulose? How high was your ammonia level? You may want to start looking at diet as well. Too much protien can increase your ammonia levels. Your doctor could give you more information on how to reduce your ammonia levels with diet. How are you otherwise? I hope I answered your questions. MaC Bob Aragon wrote: Hi,everyone.My name is Bobby.I'm a man,43 yrs old.I live in a suburb of Denver. I have cirrhosis.I joined this group a few days ago, but havn't posted until now. I do have some questions. I have what the doctors are saying is " compensated " cirrhosis, but it doesn't FEEL compensated. does anyone have information about encephalopathy? I have this and i'm very scared. I had a blood test for ammonia, and it came back high. Has anyone else had a blood test for ammonia? __________________________________________________________ Any questions? Get answers on any topic at www.Answers.yahoo.com. Try it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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