Can you feel cirrhosis?

[Kellan38]

Is it possible to tell if you have Cirrhosis by simply feeling around your liver? I ask this because I was once terrified that I had it (Cirrhosis) but a doctor who had a feel around my liver said, ‘It feels lovely and soft’. Could this ‘softness’ be an indication that’s all is not yet lost?

[Gary1959]

I had Cirrhosis and couldn’t feel it, diagnosed by Doctor after scans. Have since had a Transplant in February and now recovering well.

[Richard-Allen]

Have you ever seen s pigs liver in a butchers shop? It is soft and spongy, this is what a health liver should feel like. As it becomes damaged, it can become enlarged, and start to become much firmer.

A doctor should be able to carry out a normal examination to see if this warrants further investigation. I have found this nice American video which explains this: youtu.be/DBif1jjAfKk(Not working as expected?)

There is another tests a doctor will do, which is known as the three finger rule. As you would have seen in that video, a normal sized, health liver will protrude about one fingers width below the bottom of the right rib. By using more fingers to measure the extent of the liver enlargement will give the doctor a better idea of how much is has become enlarged. If they were to use three fingers then this would require further tests, i.e. a fibroscan for example.

Hope this helps. But apart from this, you can't identify cirrhosis by touch.

[Kellan38 in reply to Richard-Allen]

Thank you for that, Richard. I realise that I now need to see the doctor again, but I do hope I can survive and come through on the other side.

[Kellan38]

I need to add, too, that because I suffer from health anxiety, and have done for many years, I am convinced that I either have liver cancer, pancreatic cancer or some other killer ailment such as those. I’d give anything to be free of these horrible ideations, and I mainly drink to mask these fears, even though I know the drinking can only make things worse.

[Revildab in reply to Kellan38]

We sound very similar!

[Kellan38]

Hello Revildab

Thank you for replying to my post, and aplogies for not having replied until now. I came back in this site looking for a little bit of assurance, but my fears have been so deep of late that I’ve hardly dared log in.

I’m very interested to hear that you think we might have a few things in common. Do you think this will be obvious to you when I look at your previous posts, or would you like to explain this a little further?

Regards and thanks again for your reply

Graham