Alcoholic Liver Disease Online Support Group

This is just a consultation appointment. Will see how it goes. Any of you guys on this forum experience either bad breath/body odor as a symptom? I also have a lot of GI issues with digestion, dark urine, yellow stool. Dry skin. Did have itching on my feet when I was drinking, has gone away. Muscle twitches. Fingernails not too bad. No jaundice in eyes, just slightly red. Think I am still detoxing. Sometimes constipation sometimes the opposite. No diagnosis at this point. I am also in the other related forums. I am an alcoholic woman. 40 years old. Could it still be fatty liver here and it flares when a relapse occurs?

Thanks all!

Teri

Welcome to the group! I saw your posts on the cirrhosis group and thought your symptoms sounded more like ALD. I don't really have any new ideas but you should make sure to write down all your questions, symptoms and anything else to talk with your doctor about. Don't leave until you have answers for everything on your list. What kind of doctor are you seeing? If he/she is not a hepatologist or at least a gastroenterologist with a liver specialty, ask if you should get a referral to one.

Remember that your body did not deteriorate overnight from alcohol so don't expect to mend in a short time period. My cirrhosis was very advanced by the time I quit drinking but you may have stopped in time that your liver can recover. Have you checked out our website at http://mysickliver.weebly.com? There's tons of info on liver diseases from ALD thru cirrhosis and even info on liver transplants.

How soon is your appointment? Let us know how it goes!!!

Thanks for the message. Yes, very alcoholic here. I had some good sobriety with a couple of relapses along the way. Got sober at 33 after drinking since 15. I am 40 now. This time this bad breath kicked in, it is so bad that even people outside react, we are talking from distances you would not believe, yards away. It must be awful. People rub their nose, some cough/choke or step back. Prior to that I had some GI issues, pale foul stools, dark urine....these things I have seen before but they had gone away. This time some kind of silent reflux disease (LPR) where acid or bile is coming up into my throat. Throat feels or has felt constricted, sometimes like shoe strings were tied around it, other times it felt like a snake constriction. My liver is aching a bit. How long did you drink Dennis?

I drank a lot for many years, daily and until passing out most times. On my relapses just went straight to the 1/5 of vodka episodes, stopped eating...that whole bit. I wish at least the odor would resolve so I could get to meetings or meet with friends. It is very isolating and creates more of an urge to drink as it hurts my self esteem which is already very low, hence my alcoholism I believe.

What is your condition like today? Are you waiting for a transplant? When a person gets a transplant - how do they pay for it without insurance?

Could anything other than advanced liver disease cause actual symptoms? The GI doc yesterday said my liver did not feel swollen. Then he dismissed the endoscope and said to go get bloodwork and possibly US. I have had major issues with my throat. Refluxing, pain, difficulty swallowing, thick saliva, coated tongue, the breath matter. Geez - the webs we can weave. Can this stuff go away?

Thanks so much Dennis!

Teri

I've gone back in my mind (a VEERRRY dangerous thing to do!!!) and can't really recall how long I drank, "part time" in the 70s when there were other things that were acceptable, then till late 2006 pretty hard. Late 90s I was told I had end-stage liver disease but was too stupid to realize that meant cirrhosis!

Wish I could give you more information about the bad breath and body odor--I've not seen that for myself or in my research. It does make sense that it could be your body's way of purging the effects of alcohol. Remember that alcohol damages many different parts of the body's systems. You didn't become an alcoholic overnight, nor will your body clear the affects quickly. For some it can take years for the last vestiges to clear, provided none of the affects are permanent, such as brain damage. At least the liver can become completely normal if ALD is arrested before fibrosis (scarring just before full blown cirrhosis).

I received a "new" liver from a deceased donor that was 2 years younger than I was in July of 2008. I've not been able to get in contact with his family but think of their precious gift continuously. Unfortunately transplants are very expensive, as are the medications I must take on a daily basis to keep my liver healthy and prevent my body from rejecting it for having "foreign" DNA. As part of the transplant evaluation experience the listing hospital (ie transplant center) not only checks out your health and makes sure that you can maintain an alcohol free lifestyle before even being listed (for 6 months generally) and after the surgery for life, but they will also review your social and financial situations. Unless you have the ability to pay for the things I mentioned, they probably won't list a patient for transplant. Usually the center will help you to find ways to finance it but not with borrowed funds--fundraisers, grants, gifts, etc. Sometimes they can even help you find insurance that you can afford. My total cost just thru my actual operation was about $180,000 give or take a couple thousand. You may qualify for SSDI (Social Security Disability Income) when you get to advanced cirrhosis.

Yes, many different conditions can cause your body's reactions that you are experiencing without you yet being in class 3 liver disease (fibrosis). One very important thing is to have trust in your doctors. If you don't trust them, or you are not getting valid solutions to your issues (like that new prescription) find a new one. They work for you, not the other way around, and their pay is generally tied to how many patients they retain--just like grocery stores need to keep their client base to stay in business.

I hope you find a way to maintain long-term sobriety so that all your body's systems have a chance to heal. You will feel better and better as each system comes back online at full power.

Dennis made a really good point 'Alcohol damages many different parts of the bodys systems'. I suffer from Excessive acid reflux. I take 30mg lanzoprazole to combat this and it works perfectly. My Doctor thinks that I have a naturally high level of stomach acid not related to my previos alcohol missuse. You appear to have a number of things going on which are anturally causing you great anxiety. I am confident if you continue to abstain then a lot of these frightening symtoms will ease. I am likely 'Early Cirrhotic' however many of my earlier symptoms have gone after 6 months sobriety. It may take years to completely repair damage but it only takes months to feel a difference. I think the Endoscopy would be a great idea for you as it sounds like you are having more of a Stomach problem than a liver problem. Either way. Please Please remain completelty sober FOREVER!. I would through many episodes of 4 month sobriety thinking I could return to drinking like a responsable person. WRONG WRONG WRONG. We are not like normal people and cannot have just a couple. If alcohol was once a problem then it will likely always be a problem. You said in previous posts you were into weight lifting? Keep doing it. Pour your energy into anything that does not involve alcohol and I promise that in the coming months you will feel like a brand new person!

You made several very good points!!! I forgot that I also had a lot of GERD early on in my sobriety but I don't remember when it stopped being an issue. I am so happy that you are gaining so much knowledge and acceptance of ALD!!!

I would like to elaborate on your response to Teri and everyone else that only a very small percentage of people who develop ALD are not "problem drinkers" (i.e. alcoholics) in the first place, probably less than 1%. A few incidents of alcohol poisoning could be all it takes. But even then, complete and permanent abstinence from alcohol is the only solution. Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. The difference is that when we quit drinking, our minds can stop being an addict to the drug of alcohol but we have already conditioned our body to actually crave the poison.

I personally hate the label of alcoholic, even though I can say I am a recovering alcoholic. Through the great counseling that I have received I can accept the label as part of my continued recovery. Acceptance is the final stage of grief, knowledge of tragic events/diagnoses and addiction recovery. I like where I am today!!!

i hope what you said applies to me too. that a lot of frightening symptoms will disappear after 6 months of sobriety

i'm at 3 mnth mark and still have weird symptoms. in fact, sometimes, even though i have been diagnosed with fatty liver, my symptoms are coming from some other disease.

but all i can do is live one day at a time and see what tomorrow brings.

I have been told i'm likely early Cirrhotic however I am sure that many of my symptoms experienced in the last 6 months were a direct result of alcohol detox/withdrawel as many have now passed. Everyones body is different and the way that we react to sobriety also. When the central nervous system is recovering from years of abuse it stands to reason that one will experience many strange sensations in both body and mind. Non of my symptoms were present until I actually stopped drinking.

I like Dennis hate the term 'Alcoholic' although this is exactly what I was. Getting through the initial months of your body recovering is only half the battle. The rest is down to staying sober forever. Easy for me as facing Cirrhosis i'm not stupid enough to add fuel to the fire however even with Alcoholic Fatty liver I would recomend complete abstainance forever. It just aint worth the worry. I can't say that all symptoms will dissapear after 6 months as it likely took a lot longer than that to do the damage but in time things will ease and you will start to forget the pleasant sensation that alcohol can bring. I also think that an important step in recovery is good diet and excercise. If you don't treat the body kindly it will respond by making you feel ill. Good nutrition and excercise can help ease many of the symptoms of recovery by letting the body produce it's own 'Feel Good Chemicals' that don't come from the inside of a bottle!

I have my down days but the rest of the time I have to keep going as this is one fight I can't run away from!