mylofibrosis § cirrhosis

[ladytts]

my mom was diagnosed with mylofibrosis a few years ago, and last year we found out she also has cirrhosis, do to an infection years ago.  for the second time in 2 years she was rushed to the hospital throwing up blood and blood in her rectum.  what are the stages of this illness, i know this isnt good, but is there anything we can do to help her. i had been under the impression the throwing up blood and all was caused by the mylofibrosis, but i just read that is a sign of cirrhosis.  what more can we expect to happen to her, how much worse will this get? her eyes arent yellow, her skin is very thin and she does bruise very easily. she has lost an extreme amount of weight, she is only 68 years old and fighting this with everything she has, she never complains. please let me know if there is anything that can be done. she just received her first transfusion yesterday, b/c her blood levels dropped so much.  thank u for listening and if you have any answers, please forward to me, thank you terry

[imkindly]

When a person with cirrhosis vomits blood or passes blood, it is usually from "varices".

There's some information on this (and other cirrhosis symptoms) at these 3 sites:

http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/digest/pubs/cirrhosi/cirrhosi.htm#compli

http://www.ivillagehealth.com/conditions/liver/articles/0,11299,166118_124945,00.html#symptoms

http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/gi/cirrhosis.html

Also
There's a cirrhosis messageboard at
http://forums.delphiforums.com/liverfailure/messages
If you go there, scroll down the column on the left side of your screen and CLICK on the (purple) words "Portal Hypertension & Varices".
That will make a list of messages on that topic appear, click on any of them that interest you. (There are several treatments for Varices listed).

Good Luck to your mother.
If I can be any help, let me know.