What does dying from alcoholism look like?

[Anonymous]

My SIL's father died from complications of portal hypertension. He had liver cirrhosis leading to the portal hypertension and one day the dilated veins ruptured. He died at home alone. SIL went over to check on him when she didn't hear from him for a day and found him in bed. He had vomited blood all over, the bed was just soaked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MIL's long-term boyfriend (in his mid-60s) is dying from liver issues and other complications due to being a hardcore alcoholic all his life. His body is producing too much ammonia, which rises to his brain and makes him very disoriented. His stomach gets full of fluid and he has to go to the ER every so often to get his stomach pumped. This makes him lose about 10 lbs each time b/c the fluid is so much. Currently he's been having issues with his gall bladder and has been projectile vomiting.

To be perfectly frank, I'm surprised he is still holding on. He has a terrible quality of life. What else (in general) can be expected when someone is dying of liver failure?

Btw, he is on the liver transplant list, but who knows if he would even make it through a transplant surgery, much less actually receive an organ. Sad.

Since this is an anonymous forum...I guess I can say this....

I don't think that he should get a liver, when there are so many people who didn't drink their lives away who probably deserve it more.

Nobody asked you. Plus, anything you wouldn't say without the cloak of anonymity, keep to yourself, thanks.

[Anonymous]

So sorry OP. My thoughts are with you.

[Anonymous]

My dad after drinking heavily every day for 40 years. He got cirrhosis of the liver and was denied a transplant. I agree with the person who posted about someone like this not being allowed to have a transplant. My dad's skin and eyes turned yellow, he grew very weak and disoriented. He was put in hospice where he died in his early 60s. He started drinking in college b/c it was what all of the guys did but kept drinking to self-medicate. He was very depressed and the alcohol made him numb. I never really had a father growing up. He was very much a functioning alcoholic however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This all sounds horrible.

How much alcohol, over how long a period, would someone have to drink to get to this point?

I worry about my own alcohol consumption sometimes. About two or three times a week I will have around 2 glasses of wine, sometimes 3 glasses. So, typically I'm drinking anywhere from 4-9 glasses a week.

While that is a lot of alcohol for some people...that is not alcoholism. Although, you may consider why you drink that much.

This is like, drinking a 5th of vodka kind of drinking.

Agree with the pp but as s/he noted, it's a good idea to be reflective about how much you drink. Are there people with addictions in your family? Would it be hard to go without drinking the amount that you do? Those are warning signs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This all sounds horrible.

How much alcohol, over how long a period, would someone have to drink to get to this point?

I worry about my own alcohol consumption sometimes. About two or three times a week I will have around 2 glasses of wine, sometimes 3 glasses. So, typically I'm drinking anywhere from 4-9 glasses a week.

While that is a lot of alcohol for some people...that is not alcoholism. Although, you may consider why you drink that much.

This is like, drinking a 5th of vodka kind of drinking.

Agree with the pp but as s/he noted, it's a good idea to be reflective about how much you drink. Are there people with addictions in your family? Would it be hard to go without drinking the amount that you do? Those are warning signs.

Really? Aren't the Europeans known for having a glass of alcohol with every meal? I would think 9 glasses a week is normal.

[Anonymous]

I don't know anything about alcoholism, but I do know that a liver cancer diagnosis is basically a sure death notice that isn't dragged on for long like some other cancers. Symptoms show up too late. My father passed away in 6 months later from the day he was diagnosed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This all sounds horrible.

How much alcohol, over how long a period, would someone have to drink to get to this point?

I worry about my own alcohol consumption sometimes. About two or three times a week I will have around 2 glasses of wine, sometimes 3 glasses. So, typically I'm drinking anywhere from 4-9 glasses a week.

While that is a lot of alcohol for some people...that is not alcoholism. Although, you may consider why you drink that much.

This is like, drinking a 5th of vodka kind of drinking.

Agree with the pp but as s/he noted, it's a good idea to be reflective about how much you drink. Are there people with addictions in your family? Would it be hard to go without drinking the amount that you do? Those are warning signs.

This amount of drinking is not a problem. Perhaps it's not the healthiest choice from breast cancer-risk perceptive, but unless you were to increase the amount you drink considerably, I don't think you have to worry about being an alcoholic.

[Anonymous]

Really? Aren't the Europeans known for having a glass of alcohol with every meal? I would think 9 glasses a week is normal.

Daily drinking, even of wine, are at higher risk of serious liver disease, including cirrhosis. And yes, even if you're European! In fact, daily drinking is worse for the liver than binge drinking (not that the latter is healthy). http://alcoholism.about.com/od/liver/a/daily_drinking.htm

http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/6/618.full -- "WINE CONSUMPTION IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH A DECREASED RISK OF ALCOHOLIC CIRRHOSIS IN HEAVY DRINKERS"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This all sounds horrible.

How much alcohol, over how long a period, would someone have to drink to get to this point?

I worry about my own alcohol consumption sometimes. About two or three times a week I will have around 2 glasses of wine, sometimes 3 glasses. So, typically I'm drinking anywhere from 4-9 glasses a week.

While that is a lot of alcohol for some people...that is not alcoholism. Although, you may consider why you drink that much.

This is like, drinking a 5th of vodka kind of drinking.

Agree with the pp but as s/he noted, it's a good idea to be reflective about how much you drink. Are there people with addictions in your family? Would it be hard to go without drinking the amount that you do? Those are warning signs.

My uncle never stopped drinking during the day. In fact, he would keep a bottle of whiskey next to the bed just so he wouldn't get the shakes or a headache before morning. I have no idea how much he drank, but I imagine at his worse he was drinking two fifths of booze a day. One in the morning and one at night. My aunt went bankrupt supporting his habit.

[Anonymous]

This is interesting, if accurate: http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2010/02/mapping-alcohol-related-death-rates-us.html A comparison of alcohol-related deaths in across in the US and Europe. One quote:

Comparing the two maps, we find that Europeans, especially in northern and eastern Europe, have a much higher rate of mortality from alcohol-related medical conditions than Americans. New Mexico, the U.S. state with the highest proportion of alcohol-related deaths per 100,000 men, would fall into the middle of Europe's alcohol-induced death scale. We're also surprised by the high incidence of alcohol-related deaths recorded in northern and central France, which is on par with those seen in the former nations of the Warsaw Pact in eastern Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MIL's long-term boyfriend (in his mid-60s) is dying from liver issues and other complications due to being a hardcore alcoholic all his life. His body is producing too much ammonia, which rises to his brain and makes him very disoriented. His stomach gets full of fluid and he has to go to the ER every so often to get his stomach pumped. This makes him lose about 10 lbs each time b/c the fluid is so much. Currently he's been having issues with his gall bladder and has been projectile vomiting.

To be perfectly frank, I'm surprised he is still holding on. He has a terrible quality of life. What else (in general) can be expected when someone is dying of liver failure?

Btw, he is on the liver transplant list, but who knows if he would even make it through a transplant surgery, much less actually receive an organ. Sad.

Since this is an anonymous forum...I guess I can say this....

I don't think that he should get a liver, when there are so many people who didn't drink their lives away who probably deserve it more.

Nobody asked you. Plus, anything you wouldn't say without the cloak of anonymity, keep to yourself, thanks.

It is my understanding that an active alcoholic cannot receive a transplant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a long time ago, but my dad died from alcoholism. The biggest thing I remember about the end is that he vomited a lot of blood and eventually started bleeding through every part of his body, including his pores. By that point, he was in the hospital and they would clean him up every few hours and let us come in for like two minutes then send us away again.

This sounds awful, PP. I'm sorry you had to go through it.

Thank you. I was a teenager at the time and had three younger siblings. It was a bad time but a long time ago. Oh, and a PP is right that you don't die from alcoholism, but there are so many complications. One that my dad had was esophageal bleeding, hence the vomiting blood.

The thing about alcohol related deaths, especially in white collar families, is that even the healthcare providers won't actually come out and say it. I think that helped my mom get through his death, but really it drove me crazy. We lived with him and experienced the shame of having an alcoholic parent even if no one talked about it.

[Anonymous]

I would like to add that NOT all liver problems are alcohol related. Some people do not realize this and jump to conclusions. Terrible, but true. I guess some people are just bored or worse.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Sorry to see that so many people are familiar with this. I do know you don't die from alcoholism, but from complicatons...it was just easier to write that in the title.

The pp is correct; the boyfriend is not an active alcoholic. He did a ton of tests over the past several years determining his suitability for being a transplant recipient before they accepted him. He has been sober for those years and goes to daily AA meetings. To the person who asked about amounts of drinking- he drank Dewar's all day long. As soon as he got up till he went to bed and in fact even during the middle of the night (I would hear him and the ice rattling).