What to do after cirrhosis diagnosis?

[Butterfly0227]

Hi,
This is my first time ever posting to any kind of forum so I appreciate any advice/feedback I can get. On Tuesday Dec. 27th my 32 year old boyfriend went to the ER after vomiting a large quantity of blood. His blood pressure was extremely high and when they ran blood tests his liver enzymes were WAY off, his platelets were very low, his INR was very high and he was anemic. After admitting him they did an ultrasound of his abdomen and the following day did an endoscopy during which they preformed esophageal  variceal banding. They have diagnosed him with cirrhosis although honestly getting any answers from anyone was like pulling teeth! He tested negative for Hep A, B, and C so they're attributing it to alcohol. My problem with this is that yes he does drink alcohol but not daily and very rarely excessively yet I felt like the hospital staff (doctors especially) attached an alcoholic stigma to him from the get go. Through this experience we've leaned more about family history with liver disease (would've been nice to know sooner) and liver issues are very prevalent and manifest in numerous ways so obviously there's a genetic factor as well. I just feel very lost and confused as to what to do now and what the prognosis is. They unexpectedly released him from the hospital a day after the banding procedure (originally they told us he'd be there at least 2 more days), gave us prescriptions for nadolol, folic acid and a multi vitamin, and said follow up with a primary care physician and the GI doc in a couple weeks. What do we do now?? Obviously the mantra from everyone at the hospital was to quit drinking which he is absolutely doing but he doesn't have a PROBLEM with alcohol so it's easily done but beyond that I feel like we're just in this abyss of unknowns...supposedly his liver is currently functioning at 20% but what does that mean for prognosis and life expectancy and quality of life? I'm sorry for such a long post-just so many questions and thoughts running through my head...I appreciate any advice/resources anyone can provide...thank you

[flyinlynn]

Sorry for your bad news. If he is eligible for a liver transplant he absolutely must abstain from all alcohol to be elligible no matter what the cause.

There are other medical problems that can cause cirrhosis other than alcohol or hepatitis but that will have to be determined by his specialist and also how much damage he has and if he will need to be on the transplant list yet.

Just to add I was diagnosed with cirrhosis and I am still here. I did have varicies but they were found before they bled. So I had them banded as a precaution to prevendrá a bleeding incident. My point being depending on the cause and if the cause of damage can be removed a person can with care live a full life with cirrhosis. But he will have to see a specialist to know where he stands.

Best of luck to you both