Good morning all,
I have just discovered the group,sounds amazing.
Are there any other people on here with decompensating cirrhosis.?
or similar?
i'm ideally looking for a diet plan to help slow the end stage down.
my doctoer has taken 4yrs plus to diagnose this and feel let down somewhat.
Can anyone tell me what are the best things to eat and drink
Is this due to ALD or Hep C? I have an understanding of the former, but not the latter.
Im ashamed to say ALD.
Has come as a bit of a shock i must say.im only 45.
been going to my docs for years with swollen ankles and knees and they kept saying water retention or arthritis this or something else.
Just feel they are not interested.
trying to find info on the internet is a struggle as my shoulder is always looked over by the family
Good morning Haze! Just know that you are not alone! I have been dealing with declining health of cirrhosis too for about 6 years, and have some complications starting to set in! Although I suspected cirrhosis many years ago , blood work and ultrasounds have been normal from 2009-2013- ct scans w/o contrast have been normal too ! Just had one 2016, turns out, cirrhosis is pretty clever sometimes when it comes to blood work and imaging! Studies have shown patients with extensive cirrhosis history to have normal ultrasound ,ct, and even MRI !i have done so many raw diets but have also been binge eating greasy foods through all of this and have had a beer or two on very very wide occasions! The way to go is "vegetarian " lots of veggies and fruits with a smaller portion of that being the fruits! Must take supplements , vit b12 is a must if going vegan, d3 is good for cellular activation in the whole body, vit E is also averry good one- blue green algae is good (spirunila )helps dots and provides lots of energy, wheatgrass is also good, and the list go's on and on" start with this and it will make a huge difference, and give lots of energy and motivation.
Well, the first thing is to stop saying you're ashamed, stop feeling like that. If you want to be healthy, it is mind and body and your attitude will have a tremendous impact upon your health.
Tell me a little more about your situation and I'll give you my best advice. And just in case you're wondering about me, two years ago I was admitteded to hospital with suspected liver failure.
This Sunday coming is my birthday and how am I celebrating it? I have a liver scan on Saturday and a gastrscopy on Tuesday for esophageal varices.
So I kind of know what it is like, to be someone who enjoyed their drink, too much and is now suffering the consequences.
Many thanks for that RHGB
I have had a fair bit of trauma in my life,I suppose i blamed that,so i could justify having a drink!
As I said.45 yrs old,have been a drinker since the age of twelve (used to share a bottle of sherry with my dad so he didint drink as much,then go home and beat my mum up)
Since then my life has been a pile of sh*t,apart from the birth of my gorgeous daughter.
I have been trying to access help from the Drs for years,swollen ankles and knees,perpetual back pain.
I put it all down to my job (butcher) lifting and carrying heavy objects all day.
I retired from butchery 3 years ago, my partner asked me to pack it in so i could help him run his small business.which works just fine by me.
But the constant pain after a year or so was still there.
So I kept returning to the Drs,they have done several tests over the years and all came back as ok.
Especially the liver function,a little on the high side at times,but Dr would just say,try and cut down on the drink.
Recently my partner has embarked on opening another small business,and left me to run the one from home, i felt quite strained,and spreading myself a bit too thin,i started to drink more.
Loooking after the house,my daughter and her school work,my elderly mother (who is also an alcoholic)Who persistantly rings me all day.
I dont drink to get drunk,(i only ever drink cider)
Went in for the usual blood test,Dr made an appt at the hospital for me to see a gastroenterologist,then two days later whammy,
You have Decompensating Cirrhosis...Blimey where did that creep up from.
My spleen was also enlarged and they want me to go straight away for a 5 day detox.
I couldnt get out of there quick enough,i explained, i cannot afford the time.We dont even go on holiday...
So now on day 6 of total abstinance and feeling a bit better (apart from rattling with vitamins) i am not able to eat properly.
so i am back to question....what sort of diet does anyone else have to offer..
i have researched loads online,but i must say its all gobleddy gook to me. cant have this,cant have that, only this amount of that.
And quite frankly im sick of coffee and iced water.
sorry to ramble
many thanks for listening
Thankyou for your extremely kind words James.
I had actually considered going vegetarian (well at least cutting out alot of meat).
I have mentioned this too to my partner (you would have thought id pooed on his shoe).His face was a picture
I can do the fruit bit not a problem,but i must say i've never really been a fan of veggies (unless raw) would that count.
What about dairy products at all?
What do you normaly drink? as i said getting fed up with iced water and coffee.
I will give your suggestions a go,so watch this space and i'll try and report back regularly.
many thanks once again
Kind regards
Yes"raw" veggies is 100%the best way to detoxify your liver, as for what I drink" I make water fun by squeezing a little lemon and dropping some cherry's,diced cucumber, straw berry , peaches, or any fruit you desire and just drop in lots of ice at the end.there are a lot of things you can do , but to b honest I do cheat sometimes
Thanks for your answers Hazel, I shall respond in the morning, hopefully with some helpful advice. I just didn't want you to think that I had forgotten to reply, it's just been a long day.
No Thank you,
Even just for taking the time to reply,its only people that have been through this and going through this that understand.
You just get so sick of people (ie DRS and so on) looking down their nose at you.
I have quite a short fuse and do not suffer fools gladly,unfortunately at times i just say what i think.It does get me in bother.
my Drs surgery is the worst,but as we live a fair way out in the sticks,i have to tolerate them.
hope to chat tomorrow at some point.
Take care
Good morning James,
I dont suppose you could tell me whether it would be worth trying any of those meal replacement sachets?
Tesco sell them (30 sachets for a £10)
went to the Drs yesterday afternoon bloody £33.60 for prescriptions.
Anti inflammatories,anri depressants,vitamin B compound (strong) and Thiamin..
Good god
would be blooming cheaper to drink
Right Hazel,
I will answer your question in just a second, but personally that is probably the least of your worries. More important is your frame of mind at being given a shock, what medication are you taking and how are you coping with the aalcohol withdrawal symptoms?
As part of my outpatient regime (I was in hospital for quite a long time), I saw an acute dietecian at the hospital for about 18 months. There wasn't really much I was told I couldn't have, apart from alcohol and salt and I'd been told that in hospital. Whilst I was in hospital, I eat the same cruddy food that they serve all patients, I didn't get a special diet.
I'm looking at the Diet nad Liver Disease pages I was given. it says, high-protein, high-energy and reduced salt diet. The emphasis was that a damaged liver needs plenty of energy and protein. It wants to eat little and often because you cannot eat a huge breakfast and skip lunch, because after 2-3 hours the liver does not get any benefit and needs new food. It also recommends having a small snack at bedtime to give the liver some energy for the night.
The general gist was, without going overboard, try to eat plenty of fruit and veg, meat, not too much processed meat like sausges, burgers etc No Chinese food, too processed. Try to make all food, no ready meal out of a cardboard box type food. Carbohydrates are to be had regularly to give energy, if not your liver will use your muscles stores for energy - i.e. cannabalise itself.
If you want to PM an email address I'll scan the pages and send it to you. I'll do another post in a bit just going over the things I mentioned at the beginning. And I'm sure some more of the food things will come back to me and you'll probably have some questions. And I'll mention about doctors as well, I've had my fair sure of them as well over the last two years, but then I had a double whammy as I had a stroke at the same time as I went jaundiced and was sent to hospital.
Hello hazel! Sorry for late response, I have a toddler that's got 20 x more energy than I do, I don't know about satchel packaged foods, but sounds like processed to me " I may be wrong but if it is u need to stay away from that kind of stuff,also on another comment , it was recomended to eat lots of protein -meats, while this is true, it just depends what stage you are at and the symptoms you are haveing as meat can be hard on your kidneys and build up ammonia levels in your blood, I take protein in form of spinach, pistachios peanuts walnuts, but if you are gonna take meat " chicken and egg whites are recommended , there are so many things you can do, you need to do a lot of research to try to fully understand what to and what not to take" doctors are great people but if they new it all this disease would have a cure! There have been people who go to the extreme in detoxifying their bodies focusing vegan diets-juicing all raw" to avoiding pollutants that normal people use very day such as soaps ,hair sprays , tooth paste, anything in your house in a bottle even lotion," another example is not even going outside because of all of the toxins that are in the air we brieth! There to many too mention but they find natural replacements for all of this and rest in bed for a couple of weeks at a time for a phew months exposing them selves to the least amount of toxins as possible" causing the congested liver to finally focus on less and less toxins available now ,making it easier to keep up with the workload"the body will start improving all of it's functions along with all of your organs, and the kidneys do a tag team with the liver on getting all of these toxins out, therefore clean oxygenated rich nutrient packed blood that is now circulating in the body will now let the liver focus on regenerating itself instead of waste ing it's energy and try to keep up with sweeping all of the mess that we put in it. "It is a challenge!" I have read up on a phew who have tried and had success ! I have also heard of people making it just on raw juicing alone! Don't forget" everything we touch and breath" even plain air" gets processed through our livers.
Hazel,
You can buy a one year prepaid subscription card for about £104 and that will cover you for every NHS prescription you have. My nine prescriptions a month would set me back £75 and I've been taking them for the last two years, I'd be broke by now otherwise.