Concerned Daughter

[tanya003T]

Hello,
Last night, my father called to tell me he has alcoholic hepatitis. He drink a qt of liquor a day, and has for about fifteen years now.  He got worse after I left for college, and shows no signs of stopping. I want the facts, and want to know how long he has.

[Tony-z]

I so sorry to hear this...

The facts:
Is he cooperating with the Dr's! If not there really is no way of knowing the time frames.
But you said he called and told you he has alcoholic hepatitis.
So I assume he must at least be seeing someone.

Do you know how much damage there already is to his Liver.

Has he had a Liver Biopsy?

Do you know his Liver panel numbers.

This would be from blood work.

Does he eat healthy and take good care of himself.

Its all part of the picture needed to answer your question, with some sort of time frame.
We are not Dr's here, but mostly Hepatitis infected people or loved ones/Friends of someone infected.

          
                        TonyZ

[tanya003T]

I appreciate your quick response. He was told he has a fatty liver about 2 years ago. Recently his doctor ran blood for something else, and came back with this diagnosis. His idea of cooperation is  that he is going to cut back to a pint from a quart, and if that doesn't help in a month, he says he'll quit. I don't believe he will though. I will ask him about the information that you asked, and see what he comes up with .

[new-sojourn]

Unless he wants to stop drinking, he will die a very painful death from liver failure-among other vital organ failures.  It's not fast.  and he will most likely have a very poor quality of life(and death.)

Even if he stops, the damage maybe too great to have a very good outcome.  B/if he does desire to live longer and live better, he has to stop drinking.

I know its hard to watch someone literally commit suicide by the bottle.  A friends' partner-hep c- refuses to stop drinking altho he is almost into liver failure.  I got him to the VA hospital, got him signed up for benefits and now he's so happy to have all this 'new beer money'.

I just had to walk away.

When my liver failed and I went into a coma and woke up in icu, the emergency docs' thought it was substance abuse, not hep c, that caused the liver damage.  I woke up and the doc said if I even lived to be discahrged, if I ever drank again I would die.
And that I was gonna die very soon anyway.

I said, 'oh ****!  I've never been to Paris!'  Well, I was later dx w/hep c, went to Paris, got into a study and cl'd the 37yr old transfused infection in 18 days.  And I've never had a drink since.  That was 9-12-2001.

B/it is not easy to completely overhaul one's life, I realize now.

Also, he no doubt is suffering from heptic encephalopathy which cause mental impairment, memory lapses, poor personal care, emotinal instability and depression.  This is a chemical imbalance when too much ammonia builds up in the brain.  Alcohol only increases this imbalanc

So, there are lots of issues here.  Hopefully, it won't take a near death experience to facilitate the changes he needs to make if he chooses life.