What does dying from alcoholism look like?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

My uncle died of this. His heart basically gave out one day. His urine had been black for about two weeks, and he was going less and less. He just laid on the couch. He turned very yellow. One day he had chest pains and his wife took him to the hospital, he died before they could get him out of the car. His heart just died. My uncle was put on a list for a liver transplant. He gave up drinking for six months. He got the call that one was available. He had to be honest with the dr. that he was going to start drinking again with the new liver, and he decided to pass on the transplant so that someone else could have it. He died two months later. Even though he had gone six months without, he couldn't imagine living without alcohol forever. So sad.

[Anonymous]

I also remember the yellow from my grandpa. It wasn't just his skin, it was also the white of his eyes. He was weak, skin & bones and very, very yellow

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Wow. This is all very awful. My family has a history of alcoholism, though luckily my brother has been sober now for 10 years. I'm so sorry for the PPs who have seen this first hand.

[Anonymous]

My Aunt died of alcoholism. She decided to go cold turkey and ended up in the hospital. She seemed to get better, but then succumbed. This is after several decades of heavy drinking, yellow eyes, liver failure, etc. I'm at least glad that she was almost pain-free at the end, but she left behind young adult children who will have pain for the rest of their lives.

[Anonymous]

You die from diseases associated with alcoholism, not from alcoholism itself. These diseases include cirrhosis, portal vein hypertension, hepatitis, and acute liver failure, as well as primary alcohol poisoning.

[Anonymous]

There's also Korsakoff's Syndrome, but that affects the brain. Loss of ability to form any short term memories.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

My father drank himself into a coma and doctors expected him to die. He was very yellow and in the months he was hospitalized he had severe and disturbing hallucinations (from the withdrawal) and was secreting all sorts of nasty fluids from his pores. He pulled through and has been sober almost 8 years now. I mention this to give you some hope and to let you know that if an alcoholic is hospitalized (and thus forced to be sober) the hallucinations can be very scary for him and for you.

[Anonymous]

A girl I knew in high school died at 30 indirectly from this. She decided to quit cold turkey on her own, suffered from terrible hallucinations and delusions, including bugs on the walls of her apartment. She took her sleeping bag outside to sleep to get away from the "bugs" and died of hypothermia after spending a week in a coma.

[Anonymous]

Well, the guy I knew that died of alcoholism was found dead in his apartment after a week because work noticed he wasn't coming in and his neighbors noticed a stench. One of my dad's childhood best friends. It was sad.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.