Thank you very much everyone for your thoughtful replies. Maintaining sobriety has actually been very easy for me for some reason. Maybe it's because of my wife and daughters. When I think of them it's a very easy decision to make when considering the alternative. I was an alcoholic for twenty years and for the last couple of years I was spending $600 a month to supply my 23 beers-a-day habit. From the day of my diagnosis 3-23-10 it took me 3 days to taper and stop completely. There is still alcohol in my house and I cannot be tempted even when around others that are drinking. No AA or rehab was necessary. Life is much better without that crap! ha ha I can't look at it any other way than to thank God for helping me! Twiceshy, I am very sorry to hear about your husband. Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) can be very difficult for a loved one to deal with and the patient as well. I can get the same way as your husband does and not realize it either. The best thing a loved one can do is learn as much as you can about HE and try to understand he doesn’t act that way intentionally. It's the ammonia in the blood stream which reaches the brain. My wife will let me know when I’m being unreasonable and remind me of the HE and so I try very hard to just shutty. ha ha I know she's probably right and what I’m complaining about isn't really any big deal. The confusion is very frustrating too. In the beginning I had a real hard time asking my wife for help with such simple tasks but now I feel much more comfortable asking. It was very embarrassing at first. I use to have a good career and supervised a lot of people. Everyone addressed me as Sir and blah blah blah. Now I'm 39 asking my wife how to spell and figure out simple calculations. When the HE is really bad I can usually feel it with in the first hour I'm up. My wife will ask if I’m having a good day or bad day so that she knows what to expect. The Xifaxan and Lactulose really help but also a big part of controlling the HE is with Diet. The body creates ammonia to break down protein in the body for absorption but instead of the ammonia being filtered out through the liver, portal hypertension causes the contaminated blood to back up and eventually re-enter the blood stream flowing to all of the organs in the body causing very small amounts of damage. As a result we see this effect once it hits the brain causing all the symptoms we know as HE. The body is very dependent on protein to maintain strength and muscle mass. Here is where diet really comes in to play. By avoiding red meats we can obtain our protein from vegetables. Vegetables are full of proteins that are broken down much easier and anti-oxidants (rids the body of toxins). So I hope this helps you out with him getting his ammonia under control. Oh and buy low sodium V8 juice, it has basically everything you need in there. It's the best thing I've found at the grocery store for this disease! Cardio vascular exercise is also another great way to help burn the toxins away and keep the muscles strong. It will increase the amount of blood flow through the muscles and greatly help with stiffness and muscle soreness. A certain degree of soreness should be expected until his body gets more use to the exercise. Stretching is very important before and after. Also consult your doctor be and type of exercise. Wow! This turned out to be pretty long but I sure hope you find it useful. Thank goodness for spell check! Ha ha Randy |
Doc said today it could be as early as five years that I would need a transplant. I was really hoping to dodge that one. 
