my husband, 52 has been an alcoholic for many years, functioning until he wasn’t. Just over 2 years ago he started becoming confused with increasing mobility issues and kept dropping everything. I spoke to the gp several times and they told me if he was refusing to go to hospital there was nothing they could do. Eventually he became so bad I somehow convinced him to attend a&e.. his mobility was so bad I had to buy a wheelchair. Once I got him there I was not prepared to leave until we saw someone despite his bet efforts to convince me otherwise, 8 hours later he was admitted. They carried out lots of tests and he was Covid positive so they isolated him. After a few days I saw for the first time how horrendous his alcohol withdrawal symptoms were, delusional, paranoid, hallucinating etc he was so bad they put him on DOLS and he remained this way for over 4 weeks, completely out of it. During this time they did every test under the sun and at one point I was told he had cirrhosis but not to worry because there was no as cities or jaundice. He was eventually discharged after 5 weeks and had regained some mobility and was much more himself again. Unfortunately, after a couple of weeks he started drinking again. He remained stable for about 9 months when it all started again. We were still waiting the referral to the liver specialist when he had to be admitted agin with the same symptoms, he was very poorly with with low potassium which they treated and he recovered much more quickly this time. They sent him home with new medication, rifaximin and spirinoctolone. I had suspected for some time he was having episodes of hepatic encephalopathy and after being on this new medication he seemed so much better. I pushed with gp for his liver specialist referral and eventually he got a telephone appointment which I wasn’t included in and he was told to watch out for jaundice and not to worry because the liver is very resilient. Eventually a few months ago he had a fibroscan and and endoscopy, his endoscopy showed likely early PHG but no varices and fibroscan showed fibrosis but not cirrhosis. Since April though he has been having episodes of confusion, poor mobility, lots of falls and unable to hold things. At one gp appointment she recognised his hand flaps as encephalopathy immediately, he was admitted again to hospital and officially diagnosed with HE Grade 2 at this point.. I’ve definitely seen him worse than grade 2 but this is how he was when he was in hospital. I’m just completely confused, I was told he had cirrhosis over 2 years ago, now I’m told it’s fibrosis not cirrhosis but if he has HE then surely that means cirrhosis? The liver specialist told him prior to his HE diagnosis he doesn’t need to be seen for 2 years
I’m sorry this is so long winded .. I just feel so uninformed and finding it difficult to cope
Stage 4 Cirrhosis can be compensated?
Feeling confused
Worried....
Is a Fibroscan more accurate than ultrasound?
I am confused...... again!
