Couple of questions .....
Hi all,
Today my stepdaughter's mother came to visit. This is the fifth time in 7 months. Anyway, we had heard, on good authority, that mum was getting worse, on 2 bottles of vodka a day, with significant weight loss and yellow skin, but hadn't seen her ourselves (not that we do see her), nor had stepdaughter seen her since this revelation. Anyway, when SD got back from her visit with mum we said the usual stuff 'have a nice time? How's your mum?', to which she replied that mum looks terrible. She said her skin is yellow, very much so on the face, she has red around her eyes and her hands are very very pale but all the knuckles and finger joints are red. So, it is confirmed that mum is indeed yellow, and now weighs under 84lb (BMI of 15). SD asked us, outright, if this means her mum has liver disease, and if so was it serious (my aunt died recently of cancer of the bile duct, which affected her bilirubin and she was badly jaundiced, so SD knows yellow skin means liver problems). We decided that it's best to tell her truth and told her that yes, it would indicate she has liver disease, and coupled with the weight loss it's likely her liver is becoming cirrhosed. She asked if it was life threatening, and we told her it was. She also asked how much time her mum has left, but we couldn't answer that question, and also asked if mum stopped drinking today would she get better? Again, not able to answer that question as we don't know if the liver can recover from cirrhosis.
Anyone able to advise?