Re: Cirrhosis
From: Howard McCollister (nospam_at_nospam.net)
Date: 12/28/04
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Date: 28 Dec 2004 16:59:04 -0600
"alyash" <alyash@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1104270150.476851.305530@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> My mom has been an alcoholic for at least 15 years. She would drink
> herself to sleep every night. Vodka was her drink of choice and lots
> of it.
>
> This past summer, she was diagnosed with Cirrhosis. She lives 500
> miles away from me, so I emptied my savings and flew down to Tennessee
> to see her. I had just seen her a month prior at my wedding, I did not
> recognize her. She had always been a heavy woman and now she was 92
> pounds.
>
> I walked in to the hospital room and she was sleeping, I let out a
> scream because I had thought that she was dead. She was swollen and
> yellow. I woke her with my scream, at that point I had calmed down.
> She said that she was fine, and for me not to worry. She was also
> saying a lot that did not make any sense. I spoke with her doctor, who
> said that he had never seen a person in such denial as her in his 30
> years of practice. Her platlets were only 20k. She couldn't walk or
> sit up because of the swelling. I had told her to come home with me
> and I would take care of her...free room and board. She didn't want no
> part of it, and got nasty with me when I had suggested it. I was only
> able to be down there for one day. As soon as I left, I learned that
> she had checked herself out of the hospital, with one of her alchoholic
> friends to take her back home.
> The next day, her neighbor had went to check on her, and she ended up
> calling 911 and she went right back to the hospital, this time staying
> for a month, and she was in a nursing home two months after that. I
> thought that this was terrific, 3 months of her not drinkng, and
> knowing that one drink could kill her, she was saved, I thougt. She
> had already endured the DT's and was no longer dependant.
>
> I spoke with her on the phone two weeks before Christmas and she told
> me that she is hardley drinking anymore...all she said she drank was
> Zima. I told her she can't drink anything and she told me "I'm fine!!
> You worry too much!!" Right after that, she said she had laundry to
> do, and she let me go. I had tried calling her the days to follow, but
> no answer.
>
> Five days before Christmas she went across the street to her neighbor's
> and told her that there were people and human-sized rats in her house
> trying to kill her and that she needed a gun.
>
> God bless her neighbor, she took her to the hospital Tuesday night and
> they put her in the Phych unit on a 3 day hold. They let her out
> Christmas Eve so she could be at home during the holidays.
>
> No one has heard from her since then, she is not answering her phone.
> I have called Adult Protective Services on her, and they told me to
> call the police right away to go check on her. I am now waiting for
> the phone call back. I will post again very soon.
>
> If you have Cirrhosis, or a loved one who does, PLEASE POST! I feel
> like I am all alone and I could really could use a little insight on
> the disease. I know that she is the only one who can help herself. I
> have done everything that I can at this point and I feel so helpless.
> It is like knowing that someone is going to commit suicide and there is
> nothing you can do.
>
Tragic story, but it's not the cirrhosis that is her disease. Cirrhosis is a
*consequence* of her disease: alcoholism. She is becoming progressively
encephalopathic, possibly from brain damage, possibly from excessively high
amonia levels. Or both. I'm sad to say that this is end-stage cirrhosis as
indicated by her jaundice, her organic brain syndrome, her low platelet
count
You cannot fix this problem. You are not at fault. You cannot prevent your
mother from killing herself, I'm sorry to say. You CAN let this adversely
affect your own life so that her disease destroys two lives instead of just
one.
She will likely die soon, and you will feel guilty about it. I *strongly*
recommend AlAnon for you, and the book "Adult Children of Alcoholics"
http://tinyurl.com/3pfrr or some similar book.
I'm very sorry.
HMc
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