Hepatic encephalopathy, Auto brewery ... - British Liver Trust

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Hepatic encephalopathy, Auto brewery syndrome, feeling drunk, waking up with a hangover

guard00 profile image
25 Replies

Hi all I was diagnosed with ARLD around 7 months ago, I’m recently out of hospital about a month ago.

Since then my life has been chaos, losing my job, many friends and even some family due to this disease I believe. My uncle even died of liver disease.

At the wake of his funeral is where this began, people there actually thought I was still drinking because I was acting drunk, feeling drunk and even talking drunk slurring my words and falling over. I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol there, all I had was Pepsi, coffee and non alcoholic beer along with some cold snacks that were offered there such as sausage rolls and cakes

That’s when later on I started to feel really drunk and everyone could see that, I could also see how VERY drunk they were too. At one point in the evening I was actually sat there with my shoes off and feet up relaxing my feet (my legs and ankles were swelling up badly due to the acities or odema after being on my feet all day) with what looked like me drinking a shot of vodka (lactulose) and a beer (non alcoholic). This is a true story and looking back no wonder so many people disowned me thinking I was at it again, what a state I must have looked.

Not even doctors and nurses believe me. I had to get a BAC tester for on a morning to prove I wasn’t drinking but still waking up over the limit.

Yet people still don’t believe me and this is so frustrating because all it takes is a simple google search to find out the cause of it. This can’t be true because anyone can put anything on the internet right? Wrong it’s very true and there’s only a few people who are slowly starting to believe me.

It’s unbelievable even a hospital couldn’t figure this out but I did, I had such a hard time in there too for as long as I was there. I can hardly remember anything anymore now because I’m always drunk but not drinking!!

I go back for blood tests every other week now and they find nothing abnormal, still they won’t believe me.

There’s a lot of problems at home now too (parents) so it feels like I’m in this alone again. They’re doing a good job a looking after me while they’re still in disbelief of what’s happening and they’re big drinkers too and have been for as long as I can remember, I’m trying my best to help out where I can.

I’m still trying to figure my diet out right now because I’m obviously consuming too many carbs, there’s a lot more to this story but I’m not a great storyteller so that’s all I can do for now.

Hope this helps anyone going through a similar thing

I still trying or pretending to live as much as a normal life as I can, just like this never happened to me and I hope it doesn’t you

Good luck, I see light at the end of this tunnel

I also have the evidence to back all of this up because I know one day I might need it

Im hungover right now

verywellmind.com/what-is-au...

healthline.com/health/auto-...

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aut...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK5...

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guard00
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25 Replies
guard00 profile image
guard00

Not even from the living, walking and talking micro brewery?

Great advice there. ‘BlueAster’.

😘

guard00 profile image
guard00

The good news is the mail has just arrived and I have a gastroscopy appointment booked.

guard00 profile image
guard00

Guess I’m going to have to start posting evidence if no one believes me, god how rare is this disease?

Positive001 profile image
Positive001

Are you being treated for this HE ? Are you off the booze now? It seems alcohol features heavily within your family, maybe you should all be working together to address the issue and get it out of all your lives to help improve or at least stabilise your health problems?

AyrshireK profile image
AyrshireK

ABS does exist and it usually requires a stool sample to test for the presence of yeast to assess whether ABS is your issue.

guard00 profile image
guard00

Well the news reports on this are gonna be gastronomical!

Sorry I’m either just a troll or really hungover right now eating cereal at 23:30

Maybe I’m so hungover all the time I don’t even know what liver disease feels like anymore?

AyrshireK profile image
AyrshireK in reply toguard00

Surely if you have auto brewery syndrome you are further fuelling it by tucking into a bowl of cereal late at night since it seems to be that your gut will produce alcohol whilst it works on digesting high levels of carbs.

It's a rare condition but is a recognized one so it needs investigating further for you.

Katie

guard00 profile image
guard00

Of course but I was hungry and that was a consultants advice and also helps me to sleep

I guess I’ll have to find out the hard way if this is the only way

mtk0925 profile image
mtk0925

Such a strange condition good luck to you sorry no one is believing you in your family. It sounds terrible. How old are you? It looks in your picture that your too young to suffer from liver disease. I’m on my 30s I have what my dr calls “reactive liver” or “liver sensitivity” he’s done a lot of tests but anything I take shoots my enzymes up I’ve had CT scans ultrasounds, Endoscopy and barium tests done I got a lot of blood work too it’s strange

guard00 profile image
guard00 in reply tomtk0925

I’m 33; been drinking a solid 10 years and this has been the worst and most painful year of my life both mentally and physically in and out of hospital

Apparently I’ve been through this twice??

Maybe I’ve been constantly drunk for 10 years, I’m slowly starting to remember more things about the past

I’ve lost about 20 kilo

I know they say there’s no cure for liver disease but I really feel like I’m on the right road to recovery this time

I think I’ve found the solution to ABS too it could be just eat less refined carbs

guard00 profile image
guard00

False alarm I just woke up with a hangover and I watched my carbs a lot closer than usual yesterday

Truex profile image
Truex in reply toguard00

It would take more than a single day if your body is making its own alcohol. Please keep up the work! No refined carbs! no pasta, pizza, breads or sodas. This may be caused by too much yeast in your gut and or intestine. Please look up a diet that reduces candida/yeast. Good luck to you

guard00 profile image
guard00 in reply toTruex

I think I’m on to something just wanna double check this tomorrow

Truex profile image
Truex in reply toguard00

Are you feeling any better? Figure it out?

guard00 profile image
guard00 in reply toTruex

It’s hard to tell, I’ve been more careful with my diet and I’m feeling better with the “hangovers” being less intense

So it’s either my diet or I’m getting better as it is, slowly 🙏🏽🤔

I have another checkup on Thursday maybe that will tell me something more

Truex profile image
Truex in reply toguard00

Hope you find an answer! Keep us posted

All the best bro. 👍

guard00 profile image
guard00

I’m not waking up with hangovers anymore because I can’t even sleep now, I feel normal again but in constant pain which gets worse on a night/early morning

The in the past few days it’s pretty much just been that - annoying tingling pain in the lower legs depriving me of sleep

I’m starting to wish these hangovers came back now because they were easier to deal with

Hopefully I can actually get to talk to a doctor today

Zukosmile07 profile image
Zukosmile07 in reply toguard00

Snap!I cat nap and wait until what will hurt next.

I'm going to have a stab in the dark....... tonight's pain will be my hernia.

Try it, I'm still smiling and I know I shouldn't.

Coping mechanism.

guard00 profile image
guard00

Turns out I have low potassium again now so I’ve been given SandoK or something and told to eat at least 2 bananas a day as well

I’m only starting on those today and it got worse last night and after looking up the symptoms of low potassium that seems to be spot on

Also continuing with the better diet and will start exercising more often too

Plus I put on 1 kg which they said is good

guard00 profile image
guard00

After reading my original post back after feeling completely sober now my story seems made up so I can imagine some people may have thought I was “trolling” so I’d like to apologise to anyone I might have upset but I still stand by my words

For anyone who still has this this problem all I can say is it seemed to go away on its own after some time when I really changed up my diet and eating habits

To be honest besides everything else my main problems are still leg cramps and sometimes I have trouble staying asleep

Eating a snack before bed definitely helps though

Zukosmile07 profile image
Zukosmile07

Hello again guard. People who troll this site must be lower than snakes. People's lives this.I don't believe you were trolling. Listen the leg pains, are you active, do you spend a lot of time laying down do to other issues?

guard00 profile image
guard00

Thanks for your reply

I nap a few times in the day (30-60min) because I feel a little tired after I’ve eaten I still think I get enough exercise in between if that’s what you were going to say

and I’ll be walking a lot more soon after I get my dog back

I brought this up in conversation yesterday and she said I could try having a dose of lactulose if I wake up in the night because of it

So last night I did just that but also tried sleeping the other way around (head where my feet would have been) where the mattress is more solid at the bottom and that seemed to work

The problem now is I don’t know which helped, the extra lactulose or changing where I sleep 🤦🏽

I guess I’ll have to try again tonight without the extra lactulose at first

Zukosmile07 profile image
Zukosmile07

I'd investigate more with your GP. People lay down a lot are prone to blood clots, varicose veins. So in hospital they give you an injection to thin the blood. I take an aspirin now post transplant because I still have to lay down and rest. It works for me (the pain was excruciating) but you need to check with your doctor first.Danny

guard00 profile image
guard00

Well that was a battle, I feel revived

Almost back to the normal me now enjoying life again, still on the medication though

Actually I feel better than ever recently and sleeping really helped

Since my last post I’ve been in the gym a lot but it’s still hard to keep the muscle on, but recently it’s starting to stay (maybe a sign my liver is healing)

I still get the odd constipation and brain fog though along with short term memory problems

Moving on with life

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