News From the Front

So your spouse or child has decompensated liver disease. If the patient has trouble breathing it's likely from fluid that is building up in his abdominal cavity. This is known as ascites. The jaundice, pain, weakness and sleeping are classic symptoms of cirrhosis. You can't put an accurate limit on the time your husband has left. If he continues to drink, it WILL speed up his illness. However, alcoholic cirrhosis patients often improve dramatically when they stop drinking. Don't ask "What happens before someone dies with this disease?". It's not the way you want to be thinking. You want to be thinking about what you need to do to get your husband healthier so that treatment will be effective. To answer your question; a death by liver disease is really very horrible. But you don't ever have to find that out if you both work on this. Here are some general rules of thumb: Your regular family doctor will not be the one to help him with liver disease. He must see a hepatologist or a gastroenterologist that specializes in liver disease as soon as possible. Until you sees a specialist (and after) here are some steps to take: Stop using drugs or alcohol. They can't just slow down. If he wants to help himself it has to be none. Restrict dietary salt. Low, low sodium diet. This isn't just helpful advice. Salt will make him miserable. The fluid in the abdomen and body will increase. Eat a well-balanced diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. TV dinners or fast food or even restaurant food will be loaded with fat and sodium. No good. Get vaccinations for influenza, hepatitis A and B, pneumonia, and shingles (if recommended by your specialist). Inform his doctor of all prescription and nonprescription medications, and any herbs and supplements you take. A cirrhotic liver doesn't store and distribute nutrients properly and people with cirrhosis are malnourished at best. A good multivitamin WITHOUT iron once a day or maybe once every 12 hours will help a lot. Verify any advice about INDIVIDUAL supplements with his specialist, as mixing and matching on your own can interfere with prescription medications. Even if there are no conflicts with his meds, individual supplements can be harmful or fatal. Magnesium and potassium supplements, for example, can upset your electrolyte balance enough to cause spasms, stroke, or heart attack. When you look thru this list a couple of times, you'll see that this isn't a lot of things to do to help your husband and his sick liver. His specialist will work out a plan with you both, you'll see. This isn't the end for him. You have some work ahead