Liver Failure and cirrhosis death, anyone go through this?

[Mary Z]

If you have lost a friend or close relative to liver failure and cirhosis, please share with me the amount of time they had in "end stage". We are trying to get some idea of what to expect....I have posted on the liver forum...but decided to ask here as well. Thank you all for your time!
Mary Z

[gazza2]

Hi all I would like to say is I'm feeling all of the hurt from all of you here, I have spent many hours reading I my self just got diagnosed with chronic liver disease stage 4 and I felt pretty much hopeless and of course feeling I was destined to meet my maker before time but in all honesty I have never been one to back down and I'm here to let you all know chronic liver disease can be maintainsd beaten I got a second opinion from another doctor he was trying different medication on me for depression after 2 months of being on lithium carb my LFT count has halved I believe lithium plays a big part for me but please consult you doctor as  I am not qualified in this area also centa -vite vitamins along with betamin1 I am also finding milk thistle really good as most people are aware the liver has an amazing ability  to  repair itself I was told by my doctor my bloods are looking much better  I have also got in-touch with a  dietitian she has told me basically get as many carbs in as possible my first doctor advised me different normal milk ok soya is best and 3 tetra packs of ensure heaps of vegetable blanched and of course if you are drinking abstain I gave up there a people out there I thought the world was full of doom and gloom bottom line is if we don't do something about it and get a second opinion we are robbing our-self of our rite to life please for the love of god understand nothing is impossible all about diet exercise and the rite medication why you have an ounce fight in you please fight I bought myself a little jack Russell p now walking 2 times with her and some times I am so tired at the end of the day's at the end of the walk I'm generally a bit tired and I can feel a ten pound dog pulling me up the hill she won't let me quit and that's not an option sorry about the long message think about that little dog's spirit hope this inspires many bless you all <B Gazza

[courdan]

My friend is only 31 years old. I am 27 and never thought this could happen to someone I care about for at least another 10-20 years. I also didn't realize how much he was drinking. He lives with my boyfriend and I. He started getting flu like symptoms December 2015. He says he just felt so weak that getting up to get a glass of water was difficult. He was always in his room and we thought he was suffering from depression, when really he was just constantly drained of energy. He missed alot of work as well. Soon after he thought he overdosed on robitussin and hallucinated/acted out this weird horrible scenario which is a story in itself. He got nosebleeds as well. Now looking back, it was because his liver couldn't filter out the medicine. I told him to go to the doctor and he has to this day not told any doctor about that event. He became jaundiced and doctors wanted to run a number of tests and did not come to a diagnosis. Well, 2 months ago he was admitted to the hospital for 4 days after he decided to go to the ER. They drained a bunch of fluid from his stomach (10 Liters) and did colonoscopy and endoscopy and he mentioned veins in his neck. He originally told us they had thought liver failure but apparently dismissed it blaming something else to which I can't remember. He started seeming better, was more social, going to work on more of a regular basis. We thought he was good to go. Although he has been drinking glasses of southern comfort every night still with poor diet and no exercise since his hospital visit. He lost alot of weight in the last month and my boyfriend heard him throwing up the other night. Friday morning at 530 he fell and made a hole in the wall (he said he tripped over the dog)..now i think that was a lie. While my boyfriend and I were at work, he drove to his moms where he vomited profuse amounts of blood and had blood coming out the other end, he collapsed and fell down stairs. They called an ambulance and was put into the ICU with hemaglobin of 4. They sedated and paralyzed him so he could try to stop fighting the meds for 48 hours. They hooked him up to breathing machines. Less than 18 hours after being admitted, the family was called in because he was not looking good. They are supposed to wean him off sedation today. And his vitals are stable now. That is all I know as of now and I'm scared for his future. I have been fortunate enough to not lose any close friends or family members and I'm not sure I'm ready for it. I know his prognosis is probably not  good. My boyfriend and I went in his room last night and there was a bucket full of blood, just blood, nothing else, and his mattress was covered in blood as well..thick dark blood. We wish he would have told us how he's been feeling and we wonder if he's known he may have liver disease.

[rob22222]

My Dad was given 3 months to live.  He stopped drinking and lived another two years.  He only died because he couldn’t handle being sober and went back to drinking.  After 6 months of drinking he was dead.  He believed that since he was able to save his liver once that he would be able to do it again.  The problem was that he didn’t have the same support system that he had the first time and he was using old medication from the first incident.  

If you want her to live, make sure she has a reason to live and has the support to quit.  

[AlixKubicki]

I'm going through the exact same thing. My mom had signs and symptoms for years of liver failure and she kept being brushed aside. 2 years of nose bleeds, large abdomen, itchy skin, anemia and confusion.  Six months ago she was finally told she had cirrhosis from a fatty liver, but wouldn't need a transplant for a few years. Early January 2016, she had an esophageal scope and varices were noticed and banded. A week later, Jan 16, she started throwing up blood. She was rushed by ambulance to the ER. 5 hours later the hospital did a scope and saw she never stopped bleeding (i seriously don't know why it took 5 hours. They knew she had varicies).  They gave her 10 units of blood and banded the varices.  They put a breathing tube in her to protect her lungs. She had TIPS procedure done the next day to help prevent another esophageal varices bleed. A week later she woke up and tube removed, but the next day she felt like she couldn't breath and started convulsing. They resedated and reintubated her. Then things got worse.  She got an Pneumonia, had bilateral effusion in her lungs, pulmonary edema. The blood transfusions reacted with her and she got TRALI. 3 days later I noticed her rectal bag was black, next day she was bleeding again but from the breathing tube rubbing her throat. That required more blood transfusions.  The lungs took another hit from transfusions . We were asked by the drs for her to have a trach put in, but only for comfort. Than the dr.s speculated she developed ARDs. She has 3 insurances, but the hospital said she had to go to an LTAC. So after being there for 3 weeks she was transferred.  After five days in the LTAC her rectal bag was black but not addressed. Next day a liter of blood was taken out of her stomach. She was rushed to ICU where she was resuscitated two times.  Again, more blood transfusions and her lungs got another hit. Two days later, her kidneys decided to stop working right. Than last monday, she threw up blood. Another bleed.. more transfusions.For a week and a half, the hospital has been pushing us to end life support. I don't know how this happened?! Her meld was a 7 in November,  a 14 a month ago and is now a 30! And they won't do a transplant for her. She's 65. She's not young, but this isn't her time. Now they tell us she is in a coma.. she has been sedated since jan.24. No more sedation medication but she won't wake up. Anytime they would lower sedation, they said she had panic attacks that caused pulmonary edema from her BP raising so high. But no one ever checked her brain. When she threw up all the blood, she passed out and my brother found her on the ground covered in blood.
It's a horrible situation.  And there's no use talking to drs. I told them she has trali. They ignored me. Next day They said she has trali.
If you or anyone you know has varicies, address bleeds as fast you can. Transfusions can do more damage. Should be avoided until necessary.  I know if my mom would of been treated like an emergency,  she wouldn't of required as much blood and plasma and maybe her lungs wouldn't of been effected.

[AlixKubicki]

Update: few hours after I wrote my comment, the hospital called and my moms heart was struggling. I was told she will probably have a heart attack. The next morning I went to the hospital, said my good byes and ended her life support.  

[dsurface03]

This is kinda long but I hope my story might help someone or someone may have some answers for our family.

I am going through the samething with my mother in law. My father in law passed away very suddenly from cancer. We where told he was in remission and then three days later he died at home on my mother in laws birthday. She has always been kind of dingy and my father in law did everything for her. But this past summer she started locking herself out of the house and car. Backing into things. But then she started saying things like asking my daughter why she was at her house with her boyfriend at 7:30 am waking her up. My daughter was at softball practice.

Thank god for a good friend of hers or it might have taking us to long to notice. We only live five miles from her we have 3 kids and are always on the go as well as her to. But she had started saying things about seeing my father in law. She would say he is out in the wood working shop. He has been dead for 2 years. There is a history of demintia in the family. We found out she was not taking any of her medication. When I called her Doctor she did not seem to worried and told us to monitor her meds and when she had been on them for a couple of weeks see how she was doing then and call her. But she did want us to stop by and get a urine cup and check to see if maybe she had a UTI. (That turned out fine) We set up a med planner an I went over everyday morning, afternoon and night. She had takin them for about three days and I noticed her stomach looked like she was about 8 months pregnant. (56 years old) I have been in the medical field for over 18 years and knew something was really wrong.

I called her primary Doc and she got her right in. They did some blood work and anouther urine test. This was on a Friday afternoon and Monday morning they called and told us we needed to get her the the hospital right away.

3 weeks she was in the hospital. Nothing in her blood work really stood out and they could not figure out why she had so much fluid building up in her abdomen. That day they took of 6 liters of fluid. 3 days later they took off anouther 4. Blood work everyday and still nothing. They did a CT scan on the 6th day and seen her liver was enlarged and decided to do a biopsy. That's when they told us she had chirosis of the liver. They started her on lactulose and said her ammonia levels where high and that was causing confusion.

Now this whole time I am asking how her confusion was doing and if they noticed it and they where dismissing it. Said she was fine. I even called out one Doctor who had seen her 3 days in a row who told me she did not seem confused and she was pretty with it. I asked him if she was really with it why did she just ask u guys to shut the windows cause the wind was blowing in her and making her cold. The Windows do not open in the rooms. She also told us she did not sleep very well that night cause her dead husband was shooting coyotes outside cause they where chasing the chickens.

I am going to try and shortin this up some but I have never had such a bad experience as we did with her. Her ammonia levels never really got high. The highest they ever got was 52, and when I questioned how that could be causing the confusion I was told he was not really sure because it's not really a problem until they get to be over 100.

When we asked how bad her liver was as in what stage she was in? We where told they don't go by stages and that her liver was really bad and decompensated and she would need a liver transplant. Never gave us a MELD score or a life expectancy nothing. They did question me how I knew about the MELD score and that was it.

We where told she would need full time care and that she needed to go to a nursing home. We had a million questions and none of them seemed to matter to them. She was in a nuersing home for 21 days until she did start getting better and her insurance would no longer pay. But about a week before we where told that my husband and I sat down and had a long talk that she is only 56 years old and we hated to see her in a nuersing home. I quit my job and we moved her in with is and I take care of her full time.

The 21 days she was in the nursing home she did have fluid taking off onetime and they took of 5 liters then. The Doctor there did not seem to worried about it and that was a big factor with us not keeping her there. My biggest thing is she has gotten so mean an is singling all her anger at one person and that person is me. I know she is in a lot of pain and her Doctor will not give her anything and told her to take Tylenol. She weighs 98 pounds. She has lost about 38 pounds since this has all started. All of her swelling has went down and she has not had to go back to get fluid taking off for a month now. She hates taking the lasick pills and the lactulose cause she has to wear depends. Sometimes more a lot more then I would like her to she flat refuses to take her medication.

We did find out finally she has a fatty liver and the medication Methotrexate for her RA caused the chirosis. Her RA Doc did blood work every 3 months and nothing looked out of the ordinary. Just like at the hospital. Her GI Doc did finally tell us after he gave us the run around that with the way her liver is if she does not get the transplant she will not make it over a year.

My other thing is she is 56, she has RA, the chirosis has started causing damage to her heart. It has caused bleeding in her stomach and they did diagnose her with the early stages of dementia. We are going to see a hepatologist on the28th of this month to see what they say.  Thank you for reading my story I am sorry it was so long but if could help someone who is in our same shoes I am glad to help. If anyone has went through anything like us I would love to here ur story.

[JayGei]

My mom went to the doctors yesterday for her blood test results. Shes a heavy drinker and has been since before i was born (im 16). She was told that if she couldn't get her liver enzymes down, she'd be dead within 6 months. I just want some answers and no one is giving them to me.

How long was it until you guys saw symptoms in your relatives/loved ones? What do I do? Even if her enzymes do come down, is there a chance she'll still die?