Has anyone given up alcohol due to PBC?

[SamT]

I have!! Although I wasn't a massive drinker I could be classed as weekend binge drinker a few years ago. From the outset my consultant told me that drink wasn't banned but should be moderated. I've actually gone from a party girl, always up for a celebration with friends to teetotal and quite proud of the fact I have had my first dry Christmas in 32 years. Yes my life is different but much more geared towards finding other fun things to do. Even played Bingo with the kids over Christmas. Yes I've lost a few friends but hey - they can't have been proper friends really. Would really like to hear other people experiences

[bink]

I too was one who drank on weekends and to celebrate but have it up completely , it's been 3 years and I can say I do great without it and am lucky to still have my best friend right by my side , her and her hubby and mine do drink but it doesn't bother me at all .

[Hidden]

I was only ever the celebratory drinker, nothing heavy. I didn't go out drinking at all and my first experience of a night club was at the ripe age of....32! (I'm 48 now, diagnosed PBC when I was 46.) A friend of mine had wanted me to go out with her so I did. I stayed at her home overnight and I was up at 7a.m. with her daughter and husband whilst she was still in bed nursing a bad hangover! When she got up as I was setting back home a couple hours after rising, she asked how I wasn't hungover and all alive. I'd not had hardly anything to drink during the 9 hours we were out, I'd just had a few alcoholic drinks but had mainly small bottle of pure orange juice!

When I had the first abnormal LFT in early 2010 I just never bothered having any alcohol and haven't since. It has never bothered me at all but what has really bothered is the fact that it has made me shrink back somewhat and I don't even want to be in a situation where people around me are drinking. I went to my niece's baby's christening last year and baled out after the church ceremony due to the fact of the after-event, at a club. I just didn't feel ready to say a strict no to people if they offered to buy me a drink and I certainly don't intend to inform people why. It seemed so easy prior to the itch starting and the abnormal LFTs and then diagnose to simply refuse alcohol but for me it seems a lot different now. I expect it'll get easier with time. My family simply do not bother, they still drink around me but them knowing I'm not asked regards alcohol.

[Gilz1702]

It is true though how you find out who your true friends are. I have lost touch with a very good friend because our social scene always was around alcohol. I was never a big drinker, more because my body just couldn't handle it and I was always sick, but when diagnosed with pbc 7 years ago I stopped drinking altogether for a couple of years. Thereafter wasn't invited to days or nights out or if I was, I was always being told just have one!!! I am a nurse so had the ability to get bloods taken whenever by colleagues. I had a few drinks one weekend had LFTs checked after and they hadn't altered. Not sure what the long term damage, if any, is of drinking alcohol. Now though I've been having the odd drink, don't feel any worse for it. I fortunately have got a great bunch of friends and husband who accept me for who I am and I realise I don't need alcohol to enjoy myself with them. Other positive side is I rarely stand in the freezing wet Scottish weather waiting on taxis.

[Annflanagan]

Hi im much the same weekend drinker and not even everyweek end, iv scaled it right back, only for birthdays ect, couldnt handle the hangovers, was to ill, i did miss goin out now im not that bothered ill always find better stuff to spoend my money, i now have a shoe and boot fetish lol i coulod open up a shop, my friends arnt much drinkers but we have lunch, dinners out instead

[mojo62]

I was never much of a drinker. Just the odd glass of wine with a meal but since my diagnosis a year ago I have given up completely. Don't miss it to be honest and since my liver is already pretty damaged by the PBC I don't want to put any more strain on it than I have to.

[Firefly33]

I was not much of an alcohol drinker, but had a rare, occasional drink prior to my Stage 2 PBC diagnosis in Oct.2012. I didn't enjoy alcohol or the way it made me feel after even 1/2 a drink. So when my liver specialist told me "no more alcohol...ever" and "no more raw seafood...ever"...I was well aware I could follow these two mandates from her. I have read it is really hard on the liver to drink alcohol, so don't mind avoiding it.

[mumofthree]

Like mojo62 I was never a big drinker and since being diagnosed with PBC do not drink at all even though my consultant said that one or two glasses of wine etc would not do any harm.

[Maggs3petts]

Like others who have already commented, I wasn't much of a drinker either so giving up alcohol for good wasn'ts a problem. I'd been working while suffering with arthritis, asthma, depression, fibromyalgia, migraine and Raynauds until scleroderma took hold and then I couldn't do it any longer. I've since been diagnosed with PBC, sjogren's, sciatica, telganiectasis and hiatis hernia. I'm on Ursodeoxycholic Acid and I'm not sure it if works or not but I feel its better to take it than to discover later that it would have worked. I've recently had problems with my pancreas and more problems with reflux. Over the last few weeks I've developed lumps on my neck, arms, and legs and started to have nose-bleeds - something I never had in my life my GP has arranged an appointment with my Rhuematologist, for 21st inst and I have to go for another Endoscopy on 11th inst - so hoping I'll get some answers from both of these Consultants. I did hear that one or two glasses of wine with a meal wouldn't do any harm but I just prefer not to have any. Think I just need rubbed out and re-drawn, for sure. Not sure if any of this helps anyone, hope so. Best regards.

[mrspiggy]

Yes, I have. Diagnosed March last year after birth of 3rd baby but had my last drink on Christmas Day. Drinking was part of my life and I found it hard at first to get my head around. But I read Jason Vale's book and haven't looked back since! xx