hepatic encephalopathy

[sheperd86]

just a quick question before I see my consultant on Thursday for my 1st face to face since diagnosis over 2 years ago. I was told initially I had compensated cirrhosis and as far as I am aware this has not changed. However after my last phone appt the consultant qrote that I have possible signs of HE.i thought you could only get that if the cirrhosis was more advanced? The main issue I have is not being able to sleep at night and consequently am really not with it during the day. This has been going on for several months now. Any views welcome.

[AyrshireK]

You can have mild HE even with well compensated cirrhosis. Sleep disruption is one potential symptom of this. If you haven't already seen it the BLT website has a page all about the condition including a really useful document called the patient passport. britishlivertrust.org.uk/in...

My hubby takes lactulose and rifaximin for his mild HE.

Katie

[sheperd86 in reply to AyrshireK]

Thankyou for that. Really useful as I had assumed it was a complication of more progressed cirrhosis. My cirrhosis is due to fatty liver which was never dealt with, or explainer about possible progression and a medication that I was taking for several years due to another condition. Will see what the consultant has to say on Thursday.

[Cat-B]

Sleep disruption play’s havoc with your brain, what ever the cause, it’s good that you are having a face to face appointment so your doctor can do a full assessment ( they might want bloods and other tests so take a small picnic) good luck and please let me know how you get on.

[sheperd86 in reply to Cat-B]

Thanks, I will do. One of my other consultants reduced one of my meds as a possible side effect is sleep disturbance. Unfortunately that hasn't helped the sleep , but does mean I'm in a lot more pain so can't seem to win either way at the moment.

[sheperd86 in reply to Cat-B]

Hi, so I've seen the consultant. She is happy I'm not retaining fluid anywhere. I have been on Laxido for a long time due to other medications I take, she upped the dose of that last time but has now switched it to lactulose to see if that is more effective. She did say it is very hard to know what is down to my liver and what is due to other conditions I have. Meanwhile, km just going to celebrate as last night I managed to get 6 hours sleep in total. Would be nice in one go, but hey 6 hours is so much better than 3. Have a good weekend and thanks for the support

[Cat-B in reply to sheperd86]

Well done, yes 6 hours is definitely a great improvement, I hope it continues x