Welcome Krass!
The last few months of my drinking I noticed an ache in that area, too, and thought the same thing you did (it went away when I got sober).
Like you, it made me start thinking about what would happen if I kept drinking and I started reading about how alcohol affects the body. It turns out that alcohol affects every major organ (yikes)...... infact, more alcoholics die of heart attacks than cirrhosis. The list is really long, though....... pancreatitis, esophageal varices (where the vessels get weak and they can burst - too scary), all different kinds of cancer....... and on and on.
I guess I had wondered what it would be like to die from drinking (I wasn't really sure I'd be able to get/stay sober). One of the things that made me commit was realizing that I could be in and out of the hospital for years before I got to the merciful dying part.
I also came upon this forum while doing my research and it's been my lifeline now for 19 months. Sobriety is so much better - I've been amazed!
