Need some positivity

[Lifefan]

I have been diagnosed with liver cirrhosis I'm April/ may I have been alcohol free for 3 months but I am having a very anxious day today about my life expectancy and was hoping to hear of some positive news or advice please

[Grassroots112]

Hi and first of all sorry for your diagnosis, but congrats on the 3 months abstinence, that’s amazing as I know how hard that is, I’m almost a year and a half sober myself. Well done and you don’t need me to tell you to keep it up.

I’m no doctor of course and don’t know your story, but it’s not the death sentence as it once was considered. Many people with cirrhosis live long and healthy lives and die with cirrhosis not from it.

If your cirrhosis is caused by alcohol the good news is research and studies suggest of all liver diseases, while alcohol can be the more damaging, by abstaining full stop for good, the liver can make a remarkable recovery, remodel itself and more than compensate.

I recently learned from someone I know who has a relative who was diagnosed with cirrhosis over 20 years ago through drinking, I haven’t met the person in question, but I’m told he’s alive and well and you wouldn’t even know he has it if you were to look at him. He quit drinking and went in a Mediterranean diet and hasn’t looked back since.

Do you know if you’re compensated or decompensated? If you’re decompensated the liver can return to a compensated state and vice versa, the key is to keep your liver compensated, do that and it will perform the vast majority of its functions well enough where there is no reason why you can’t live a full term normal life.

Again those who have cirrhosis through alcohol, by removing the alcohol there is nothing that can attack the liver further so it can have that needed time to heal and once healed enough again it can function perfectly well enough. Of course a healthy diet is essential too.

I haven’t been diagnosed myself one way or another as I’m told that can only be achieved if they removed my liver and put it under a microscope. March 23 though I was hopsitalised with jaundice and ascites where I had to be drained, looked like a corpse and was effectively dying and would be dead now had I not went in when I did and I’ve been sober since and can never touch a drop again if I’m to remain compensated and healthy which is what my doctors are now saying I am.

Do you know your MELD and have you had a fibroscan yet? Your INR and platelets are also a good indicator as to how well or not the liver is doing especially with cirrhosis.

You are certainly doing the right thing by stopping drinking and if you follow all advice from your doctors and stick to any medication they give you and get checked over regularly (I’ve just had my 6 monthly US today myself which I’ll likely have to have for the rest of my life for example), then there is no reason why you can’t live a long life. Doctors certainly can’t predict your life span and don’t read Google looking for such answers whatever you do.

Hopefully a few more people on here will come into this post who have more experience and better advice to give who have been diagnosed themselves and who can maybe answer any questions you have. I wish you nothing but the best with your abstinence, take it easy and take care.