Cirrhosis of the liver

[Hithereeveryone]

Goodmorning everyone.

My partner has cirrhosis of liver he has had it a while now, recently he has got really tired and has quiet bad lower back pain. Doctors and specialist are no help. Could this be a bug he has picked up and can't shake off or is it something to do with the cirrhosis?

[AyrshireK]

Is the pain in the kidney area? Have they run some recent kidney tests. Liver damage can often impact the kidneys too.

[Hithereeveryone in reply to AyrshireK]

Hi its the lower back area he had bloods done a few months back and would be due some more soon

[Kristian]

The tiredness could definitely be liver related. I couldn't say the same for the back pain though. It wasn't something that particularly troubled me. I couldn't rule it out either though, but it wouldn't be my first thoughts.

If the tiredness and back pain started around similar time then it may well be something else, possibly an injury or an infection somewhere. A back injury can come from just sitting in the wrong position or with poor posture for too long (i do speak from experience there, lol). With cirrhosis, you are more susceptible to both and of course muscle weakness and some musculoskeletal issues can also occur as a result of cirrhosis too. Hence me getting splinters from sitting on the fence in my first paragraph, lol.

So in a roundabout way, the issues you refer to, could be linked to the cirrhosis, but could also be caused by quite a few other things. It's therefore likely to be a bit of a process of elimation required to rule out the more common causes of both before settling on whether it is just a complication of cirrhosis or not.

Sorry for answering, and not answering, your question at the same time. I shall go and get my tweezers to remove more splinters (or possibly replace my fence).

[NorbertGrubbins in reply to Kristian]

Brilliant! And nicely put - I agree

[Readlots]

Hi, if you’re worried I’d ring his liver nurse to get advice. They might talk to his consultant and order more tests, or they might advise him to see his GP. Better to get it checked out than to leave it and worry

[Hithereeveryone in reply to Readlots]

Thankyou readlotsHe doesn't have a liver nurse? Only a specialist and GP?

[Readlots in reply to Hithereeveryone]

In that case I’d contact the GP and/ or the consultants secretary. You can usually get their number off a letter or from the hospitals main switchboard.