Question by connie c: Does anyone know anything about alcoholism and liver disease. My mom’s an alcoholic and I need advice!!!?
My mom is an alcoholic and has been for about 5 years. Her face is puffy and her abdomen is bloated. Her arms and legs are just flesh and bone. She doesn’t look healthy. She is in total denial that she has a problem. On top of that, her mother died a few years ago of cirrhosis of the liver. She is now taking care of her boyfriend who lives with her and is in the final stages of cirrhosis. Her boyfriend is dying in her home, right in front of her and she continues to drink. I honestly don’t know what her “rock bottom” is, that is, if it’s not death. She lives in another state so there’s not much I can personally do to help her. Can somebody help me? I don’t know what kind of help I’m seeking here, but if anybody has any advice on how I should confront her or if anyone knows anything about liver disease and whether or not I should be concerned about the health of her liver based on her physical appearance, it would greatly be appreciated.
Best answer:
Answer by hmugnolo
Im so sorry to hear about you situation, i don’t know many facts about it but i will try to give you my best advice. i think that based on your description, your mother is in serious need of medical attention. it is inevitable that an alcoholic will have a lot of damage to the liver. confronting her, while not an easy thing to do, is a good idea. im not sure of a specific number to give you, but i no there are many alcoholic support groups, and if you go to school you should try talking to your guidance counselor about what you could do. try to get another adult and/or someone who deals with alcoholics involved to give your mother the help she needs. Good luck to you and your mother, i hope things work out for you both.
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Unfortunately, the puffy face and bloated abdomen could very well be markers of hepatic cirrhosis…but it could be a number of other conditions. Does she look similar to how the boyfriend looks?? If so, it is likely it is hepatic cirrhosis.
Addiction is a terrible disease to get people to see. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. Somehow you need to convince your mom to seek medical treatment. There are procedures like the TIPS procedure to reduce some of the clinical problems that accompany cirrhosis. She could also be placed on a transplant list if she fits the criteria.
You are in a terrible predicament, I would suggest an intervention. I wish you all the best luck, and hope that my suspicions are wrong.
Hope this helps.
You need to seek out an Al-Anon group. It doesn’t really do any good to confront an alcoholic, all you can really do is stop being supportive of it and control the effects on your own life. The bloating you describe could simply be the result of malnutrition and protein deficiency, and there could also be liver damage as well. But to know that, your mom would have to go see a doctor, and from the sounds of it she isn’t willing to do that. Perhaps she is in denial, perhaps she’d just rather not know for sure. Perhaps she does know, and still isn’t willing to give up the alcohol. Confronting an alcoholic really never works out, all it does is give them another reason to drink, and you end up frustrated. You can offer to support her if she chooses to dry out, otherwise there just isn’t anything really you can do except save yourself. I’m sorry, it’s rotten. But in this situation, the only person you can save is yourself. You can’t make your mother do a single thing she isn’t willing to do. The first step is hers. But do find the Al-Anon group, because there you will find folks in the same spot as you, and they will have a lot more support to offer than you can get here. Good luck, I wish you well.
Alcohol is no doubt bad for the liver. She should see a doctor and get a blood work done. The ealier the stage of disease the easier to treat. I hope it’s not cirrhosis yet. I think it’s best to get her checked-up first, then you can do the encouragement of rehabilitation. It might be hard, get more support system for you and your mom. You need lots of support too. Good luck.