Question by Alex K: How does alcoholism physically kill?
I know this is a very sensitive subject to many, so i apologize if I upset anyone.
For various reasons, I would really like to know what the final stages of liver failure is like. Pretty much, as when someone is dying from alcoholism (liver failure i believe) what would the last few weeks be like. When does jaundice start, is it painful, are they very conscious and lucid? I apologize for asking such a morbid question.
Best answer:
Answer by J B
The liver quits filtering the toxins out of the blood stream and all these toxins get deposited into the skin which can cause severe itching. The skin often turns green during the end stages of liver failure. The abdomen bloats because of ascites which in turn causes difficulty breathing. This is a long, painful, difficult way to diet. You can go to WebMd.com and type in liver failure for more information on this subject. People can be conscious up until their last few hours but every person is different.
What do you think? Answer below!
As a nursing student, I was assigned to a handsome young man in his late 30′s who had been a very, very popular man in our town and the “social drinking” went along with it. He drank all the time, but because of his status and popularity, he wasn’t considered a drunk or alcoholic. He died.
On my student assignment in the hospital, I was so shocked–he was covered with uremic frost and yellow. Uremic frost looks just like frost–I guess that’s the ascites coming out of the skin because the liver and kidneys failed.
I know of very young people who pass out, get delusional, go in the hospital, dry out for two days and are right back at it. One woman my age (58) has been a drunk since high school. She lost her teaching degree. She can’t make it in the back door without passing out on the floor. She makes up totally delusional stories about me in high school–very untrue stories. After high school, I only saw her at class reunions–she was “too good” for me. I never could STAND her. She lives in her own little world–she lives in a bottle.