What to think?

[Pego88]

Hello. My name is kyle, I am 17 years old. My dad has been an alcoholic my whole life. Recently diagnosed with cirrorsis I obviously have been very depressed and I also have a lot of questions I seem to have no answers for. Here they are-

1: my father has lack of appetite and struggles to eat. How can we fight that? The only thing that helps on occasion is smoking pot. It doesn't always work though. So please tell me how to increase his appetite.

2: how do you usually die from cirrorsis. What actually makes you stop breathing? I know all of the symptoms so no need in telling me that.

3: I'm afraid he won't remember important things when his memory loss starts to occur from the acids in his blood. How much do people with cirrorsis forget?

4: He has tried to cut back drinking in the past and almost completely killed himself "before he was diagnosed" what can he do to stop drinking. He literally functions with it. The two times he tried to stop drinking he dropped it cold turkey. I know this is not a healthy way of doing it... So what is.

I'm so afraid to lose my dad. This whole thing absolutely consumes my life. When I'm not with my dad I'm in my room. Cramped up in my bed staring into space crying and thinking. I have no friends and don't love anyone more than him. What the hell am I going to do?

[keepingOnkeepingOn]

Seek out an Ala-teen meeting to get some support for yourself. It's confidential.

[keepingOnkeepingOn]

Seek out an Ala-teen meeting to get some support for yourself. It's confidential.

[hepcandme]

I am so sorry that you are going through this.

Is there a social worker who is part of your father's health team you could talk to?

AlAnon is a good place to start

This is so hard. You need to find some help for yourself.

Please research support networks for caregivers  - and and I'm certain others here will have good ideas too

[ralph2014]

Hi Kyle

sorry about this terrible situation you are in.

there is no easy and "nice" answer I can give you.  By the sound of things your father is unfortunately in an advanced cirrhosis situation.

There isnt much you can do about him not eating, some have alot of protein shakes instead.

People can die alot of ways from this terrible disease.  Some can go into kidney failure, heart attack, stroke, bleed to death from burst veins in the stomach throat or intestines.  If someone is obviously starting to die, sometimes they let the toxins build up in the brain and let them go into a coma and slip away peacefully.

If he can stop drinking for 6 months he may be put on the transplant list, The Liver he has is badly damaged and may heal a little if he stops, some can even get alot of liver function back and live near normal lives for years, but most of the time a transplant will be needed in the end.

To stop drinking cold turkey is dangerous, a hospital would be able to able to give him medication to stop serious issues and it only takes about 3 days to actually detox.