Liver question............
 

I will start off not being specific about my past history of drinking. I will say that I am an extreme case. I have been tested and warned by doctors about the effects of drinking on my liver. I have my liver enzymes checked and they recently are only slightly elevated.
Here is my question.....I read a lot on the internet, what I read is mostly garbage because if what they say about drinking and liver disease were true, not only me but all my friends would have been dead long ago. Ok, anyway,.....Do you not think how it affects you involves lots of factors such as how much you drink, other health problems, diet, medicines, obesity, ??????? Do doctors not just exagerate for scare tactic????? Please help? What are the first symptoms you had , if you have liver problems????? Did you see it coming???? Can you live with it???????

SR members are not allowed to give advice
on medications or medical issues.

They may PM you if they have specific information to share.

It's good you are having regular tests done
and please let that be your guideline.

As long as I remain sober....I can deal with whatever
medical problems that come along with clarity and calmness.

Good to see you again....:wave:

Sorry bout that!

Let me see if I can rephrase.............If I can....................................
Someone on here who has had liver problems, how long did it take and what was your intake and history??????????? If this is not an acceptable question, please disregard!

Your question reminds me of that old joke that ends with the kid telling God -

"Well, I'll just do it 'till I need glasses"

everyone is different. Some people can drink 30 years and have the same liver damage as someone who drank 10 years.

Alcohol abuse can really damage the whole body not just the liver.

Hi Bigpoppa,
why would they? I mean - why should they care if you drink or not? I would tend to take their word for it.
take it easy,
NL

I've known personally of 3 people who were told if they didn't stop drinking, they would be dead within 3-6 months.

Guess what? They all died within 3-6 months. (They didn't stop drinking).

As others have posted, there are a myriad of factors, not just how much or how long an individual has been drinking. Diet, genetics, and other factors and patterns can all have an influence. When I went through treatment, we all had physicals the first couple of days, and the liver function test results weren't necessarily scaled to the amount we drank: the most severe and elevated enzymes and triglycerides were from a young person who (said he) only drank beer. I drank hard liquor and binged and my results were only slightly abnormal and returned to normal in a month. Only a doctor can tell you your condition and prognosis.

I can't speak for your relationship with your doctor, but I really like mine and trust him implicitly. If he said anything to me to "scare" me I think it would be because he was afraid for me/my health. So if it seems that doctors are using 'scare tactics' then maybe it's because THEY are scared.

:ghug3

Hmmmm... this kind of makes me think of a smoker coming on here saying "smoking doesn't bother me, my LUNG feels great!" (Andrew Dice Clay reference)...

There is something else you really need to consider.......................................... ...

ALCOHOL AFFECTS MORE THAN JUST YOUR LIVER.

Years ago, a term was coined called "Jake Leg." It referred to Alkies that still walked like they were drunk, when they weren't. In reality it is called Alcoholic Neuropathy and can appear long after one is sober and also if one continues to drink.

I know. I drank tons. Have been sober many years now and in '98 at 17 years sober I started having some symptoms. By December of 2000 I could no longer do what I had been doing for years, private care of the terminally ill and/or totally incapacitated. No more lifting, no more helping them walk, hell I didn't know if I could walk. My legs would give out, they would go a different direction than I wanted them to.

What caused this? The alcohol had burned off the outer coating on the nerve endings and over time the nerves started giving erroneous messages.

There is also an increased possibility of developing Diabetes. Oh and lets not forget Lung Cancer, afterall many of us drank in public places and many smoked so even if we didn't we got the second hand smoke. It also affects your gall bladder and pancreas, kills brain cells at an accelerated rate, etc

So................................................ ........that being said do I think doctors exaggerate? No I don't and if your doctor is telling you to quit, and you want to have any decent quality of life, I would suggest you listen to him.

Obviously you are getting very concerned about your alcohol consumption or you wouldn't be on a recovery site.

So..................what's going on with you. Why do you think you might have a problem, and what do you want to do about it?

J M H O

Love and hugs,

My husband lost his last wife to liver disease. She was diagnosed, kept drinking, and was dead less than two years later.

Peace & Love,
Sugah

I was diagnosed with liver problems about 4 years ago. I get checked periodically with the exact same results , no better no worse. The reason it is no betteris because I havent stopped! DUH! Anway I have just recently decided I need to quit for good, but it was my Christian beliefs that led me to the decision. However after looking at a lotof stuff and studying quitting my health has come to the fore front. Maybe i can hang in there and nothing else will go wrong!!!!

bigpoppa forgive me if I sound a bit harsh, but it seems as though you are sailing on the river of denial!

I got out of the Air Force in 1982, at that time they diagnosed me with a "Tender Liver", they asked me about how much I and how often I drank and of course I lied!!!!

My liver remained tender and actually swollen up until September of 2006 when I finally quit. At that time I was diagnosed with a "fatty liver" which is a precursor to cirrosis of the liver.

I drank for 40 years, I had a few dry spells in there, but probably averaged about a case of beer a day mixed with any hard liquor that showed up.

That being said I know folks who got cirrosis of the liver drinking far less and for a far shorter time then I did.

There are a ton of people dead who drank far less then me, how I drank as much as I did with out serious long term damage??? I do not know. Of course even if I stay sober there are a ton of things health wise down the road that could very well pop up and cripple or kill me.

poppa I was just like you for many years, "Oh I will quit when it harms my health."

Do some research on what organs are damaged by alcohol, to save you a bit of time, every single organ inculding your skin and brain are damaged. Did you know there are forms of cancer that alcoholics can get?

My husband is the alcoholic in my family. Two years ago he was diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease, diffuse fatty liver and some fibrosis. He continues to drink. Six weeks ago, our dr., who we trust immensely, told my husband that if he continued to drink, he'd be dead in 6 mos. to a year. Husband still continued to drink. I spoke to the dr. this past week, told him that his scare tactics didn't work on him, he's still drinking. Dr. said to me that it wasn't scare tactics, thinks by now he's cirrhotic and he honestly feels if he doesn't stop, he'll be dead in 6 mos to a year. Said he gave him the "cold, hard facts". He said if he lingers on, as some alcoholics do, for a couple more years, it would even be worse, since he also sees signs of neurological damage and wants him to see a neurologist. Up until dr. said this to husband six weeks ago, husbands liver tests all came out in the elevated range, no better, no worse, etc., so hubby took that as a "good" sign that he can continue on the path he was on. At last appt., Dr. couldn't even feel husband's liver, told me it could be that instead of his liver being inflammed, it has become cirrhotic and has shrunk.
It's great that you've stopped drinking. Now you'll have a better chance at your liver regenerating itself than if you continued to drink.

I was wondering the same thing. Denial or not, what is the truth? How severe do liver enzymes have to get before you know it's really that bad?

No way I'm having that liver for dinner now. :ugh:

Playing with alcohol and your health is kind of like standing on the side of the freeway and seeing how close to the white line you can stand before a car gets to close and hits you! Once the car hits you there is no going back!!!

Kind of like smoking, people quit smoking and some wind up still getting lung cancer 10 years after they quit. Would they have avoided lung cancer if they had quit one day earlier? One Week? One month? One year?