Stitches

My Husband has alcohol liver cirrhosos, how long does he have to live and what stage is he in?

My husband has alcohol liver cirrhosis and is in the nursing home, he was diagnosed 2 months ago. He has been in and out of the hospital. All does is sleeps most of the day and is confused most of the time. His muscles seem to be deteriorating. He has his good days and bad days. The bad days scare me cause he sleeps all day and and is really confused and his belly gets hard and enlarges. He also is on dialysis with kidney failure, just a couple of days where is shunt is, it bled for a couple of days. And one day it wouldn't stop bleeding, they tried everything they could and they finally got it to stop by putting stitches and burning the tear since the blood wouldn't clot. I just want to know how long he has left cause the doctor doesn't tell us anything but he said he'd tried everything and they're nothing else he can do? I wish he would tell us the truth us something instead of hiding everything from us instead of just that. Can someone please answer my questions?

Public Comments

1. If the doctor can't tell you, no-one else can. It is possible doctor may not know. You could ask the doctor statistically people in similar positions, how long does he have left? If he gets a liver transplant he could recover.
2. First, I am sorry to hear about your husbands illness. I work as a nurse and have seen many patients with the same problems. Obviously, the doctor my be hard pressed to give you any real hope. You did not say whether he was a candidate for a transplant. Unfortunately, he may hang on for months or be gone rather quickly. Every patient is different. That being said, if you are not really getting answers from that doctor, talk to his nurse, if you are not getting what you want there, during the day, go to the nurse manager of the unit. Good luck and God Bless!
3. Hi. My brother in-law recently died from this. Once they gave him the news, he was dead 3 months later. The doctors can only guess how much time a person has left, as can we. I don't think they are hiding it from you. I'm soooo sorry for what you are going through <<<Hugs>>>
4. All that you have said here is caused because of the cirrhosis in the liver. Alcohol becomes toxic in a patient body until the cells of the liver become so damaged that they are unable to perform the functions they once did to keep the body healthy. The liver does over 500 functions to do this. The immune system of the body responds to this damage and this causes inflammation inside the liver. This then progresses to where the damaged cells start to die off and form scar tissue in the liver...this is Cirrhosis of the liver. The scar tissue cannot be removed from the liver...it blocks the flow of blood from going to the other cells in the liver and also through the liver on it way back to the heart. As more cells die off, the more scar tissue forms and the less functions the liver can do then. The fluid in his abdominal area is known as Ascites. It develops cause the liver isn't able to make a protein well known as albumin. This albumin is what keeps the fluid inside our vessels...it now seeps out and collects in the abdomen. The doctor can do a procedure to remove this fluid, known as paracentesis. It will give the patient instand relief from this pressure there. However, because the liver isn't able to make the clotting factors to help the blood to clot efficiently...the patient can bleed very easily and then might not want to try and do this procedure because of it. Patients in the advance stages of this disease develop a condition known as Encephalopathy. Our bodies use protein all the time. There is a by product produced by our bodies when it uses this protein, known as ammonia. The liver usually takes this ammonia and converts it into urea to be disposed of in our urine. This isn't happening now and the ammonia is staying in the blood and going pass the blood brain barrier and into the brain. This causes confusion and disorientation. The doctors can give a drug known as lactulose to help the patient's thinking. The kidneys of the body have so much extra work on them because they are trying to remove the toxins in the body that the liver once took care of. The dialysis machine is a method of helping the kidneys function now because this all has overwhelmed them and they can go into failure also. The only thing that can be done now would be to have an evaluation process started immediately and see if he could be placed on the transplant list for a donor organ. As far advance as he is now and if he would not stop drinking...this may not be possible. You could talk to the doctor about this. Muscle deteriation is common in people with cirrhosis and these symptoms he is having develop mostly in all patients. I hope this information helps you understand more of what is happening to your husband. It is a very difficult disease to deal with. Here are a couple links to learn more about cirrhosis: http://www.medicinenet.com/cirrhosis/article.htm http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cirrhosis/DS00373 Here is a link to learn more about the transplant process...this is written by one the Transplant Centers: http://www.surgery.usc.edu/divisions/hep/patientguide/index.html You can go to these links just by clicking on them here.
5. It is nearly impossible to answer this question with much accuracy without a lot more details about your husbands condition. I assume transplant must be out of the question since you have not mentioned it. I would really like to see his labwork in order to get a better picture of what is going on. If your husband needs to get tapped pretty often, if he is jaundiced, if his blood is not clotting right, if he is confused from encephalopathy, if his kidneys are failing, and if he is sleeping most of the time, it would be pretty safe to say that he is probably in the end stage of the disease. There are many factors that play into the picture as to how long he will live. When did he stop drinking? Sometimes there is a big improvement after a person stops drinking, but it sounds like your husband might be too advanced that stopping drinking might not make a difference. It might slow the disease down, but the disease will still progress to total liver failure once it reaches a more advanced stage. Your doctor just probably doesn't want to guess because that is all it would be, a guess. If he hasn't worked with a lot of cirrhosis, he really probably doesn't know. Some doctors are not all that informed when it comes to cirrhosis. A gastroenterologist or hepatologist would know more. Cirrhosis is a slowly progressive disease. I'm sorry I couldn't help you more.