Re: questions-hopefully some answers

[Guest guest]

Hi, there, Jonie. I wasnt sure if any one answered your post, we didnt mean to

ignore you. I am Bobby, a 47 year old recovering alcoholic. You are going

through a terrible time, and my heart goes out to you. I went through it with my

best friend in the world in 2006. She was an alcoholic in denial, and she had

end stage liver disease, and I was her chief enabler. Watching her dying cause

me to reflect that I had a drinking problem, and needed to quit.After she

died, I drank heavily untill I needed medical intervention to safely quit.

Alcohol withdrawel can be deadly, a fact I never knew. I have been sober for 3

years and 10 months. My story is here

http://onethreezeroonethree.blogspot.com/

There comes a point when doctor care is useless. Palliative care is a humane and

practical way to help a human being to go through the end stages of life with

comfort and dignity. Curative care places death as the ultimate enemy,

palliative care places the comfort and dignity of the patient first, death is a

welcome friend, not an enemy, suffering is the enemy. I hope my stoyr gives you

some insight, and as well. Love, Bobby

________________________________

To: livercirrhosissupport

Sent: Mon, July 26, 2010 6:21:08 AM

Subject: questions

Hi all,

There are sooo many posts, I can't seem to find answers to all of my questions

without spending hours searching, so I figured I'd put them all down in my own

post, in the hopes of getting some guidance.

My dad is in the end stage, 69 yrs old, currently malnutritioned due to

constricted esophogus (size of straw), ascites buildup frequent, diabetes dx

recently on insulin at night only, groinal hernia, recently beginning to be

painful, sleep patterns irregular, varices significant, recently hospitalized

due to bleeding ulcer that caused high level of ammonia in system (over 180), in

for a week.

MELD score currently 13, but irrelevant because he's not a transplant candidate.

oh, did i mention STUBBORN AS HELL???? refuses to do anything that will required

any sort of hospital stay, outpatient only, refuses to have strangers come stay

with him, only family, which is difficult for us, but since this all came to a

head during summer when I'm off, it's been manageable, school starts in two

weeks, so I'm frustrated as hell. Not to mention he is in total denial that his

lifelong drinking caused this!!!

Basically my questions are to try to get an idea of life expectancy. I

understand there no " written in stone " sequence and that it depends on other

issues, but I was able to get more specific info from posts of others in this

situation. Thank you for your help, and God Bless.