Cirrhosis Support Group

Cirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver disease, most commonly caused by alcoholism and hepatitis C. Ascites is the most common complication of cirrhosis and is associated with a poor quality of life, increased risk of infections, and a poor long term outcome. Liver damage from cirrhosis cannot be reversed, but treatment can stop or delay further progression and...

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/ Cirrhosis Support Group

Seeking your wisdom and knowledge

warwick68
warwick68
I have not been given a formal diagnosis. I surely did something to myself though. A heavy beer drinker since the late eighty's then mid 2004 started taking pills that contained acetaminophen and drank daily for about 8 years on top of them. So doing the math lets assume there has been some serious damage.

With the posting I have been reading I sense you all have a great deal of knowledge. What type of liver disorder would the acetaminophen and alcohol cause. Being types of hepatitis or cirrhosis.

Thank you warwick
MLTTexas
MLTTexas
As far as acetaminophen, what I found from reading about it is that it can made side effects worse if you have liver disease. The alcohol use can certainly cause Cirrhosis. As far as Hepatitis A, B, or C, you have to be exposed to those viruses to get them. Hep C is a blood-to-blood contact disease, so the blood of a person who has Hep C would have to come in contact with your blood. That can happen through being given blood, through a contaminated needle, sometimes through tatoos, anything that exposes your blood to the blood of someone who has hep c. That's really the only help I can give, if it helps at all. You need to see a liver specialist and have some tests done, and of course, if you are still drinking, you need to stop. Wishing you the best, and hope you will stay with us. Marilyn
warwick68
warwick68
Thanks Marilyn. I have stopped the drinking. Well I may heave a beer once a month. I went 15 months without any. I have learned how to live without it. I can see my later teen years were just embodied around a case of beer. Hell my friends and I did nothing without a cooler of beer. Life was pretty sallow. Well regardless I am sure just a few beers a month is not good for my prior lifestyle.

After several years of taking all of these pills and drinking I read about the mixing of alcohol and acetaminophen. The warning was vague. "Drinking alcohol may cause serious liver problems." Even if it was specific I was addicted to them and probably would have still taken them.

My guess would be just slowly killing your liver cells leaving behind the scaring. There are times when I consume certain foods. I think my liver is swelling. I do not know if a liver swells and then in morning or several hours later the sensation of swelling is gone.