Liver Disease Diagnosis
In 2024 I went to my doctor complaining of a few things:
- I was so tired I was sleeping all night and half the day.
- I was cold all the time.
- My thinking was foggy.
- My memory was terrible.
I learned something nobody had ever told me. For years, doctors had told me I had a fatty liver. I’ve long been a little overweight and I was already doing my best to keep that under control. I thought this was just more of the same and didn’t think about it much.
It turns out that over time, a fatty liver becomes cirrhosis of the liver, a really horrible disease commonly associated with lots of alcohol consumption. It turns out you can get that without drinking at all, which is what happened to me. There is no cure for this disease except a liver transplant, and without a transplant it will kill me.
My symptoms were because of high levels of ammonia in my blood. This is a toxin produced by our gut microbiomes. In healthy people the liver filters it out and it isn’t a problem. With a barely working liver much of it stays in the blood and causes hepatic encephalopathy. In plain english this means “Brain sick (encephalopathy) because of liver (hepatic)”.
Internal bleeding and hospitalizations
In April of 2025 I got up one morning, vomited a large amount of blood, and went immediately to the ER. I spent a week in hospital. I have no memory of the next couple days. My encephalopathy was so severe I didn’t know where I was or why and they tell me I thought all the nurses were my wife.
On October 1st 2025 I felt some similar symptoms and went again to the ER. While I was there I suddenly fell to the floor with blood pouring out of my mouth. I bled out. My heart stopped because there wasn’t enough blood left to keep it going. I don’t remember any of this, but my poor wife was there to see the whole thing. It breaks my heart to think of her seeing that.
I later learned that most of the people involved in saving my life and transporting me to an ICU in another hospital didn’t think I would live. One doctor told me that if I’d bled like that anywhere but in the ER I would have died before they even got to me. I am alive by some extraordinarily good luck.
I was in hospital the whole of October. It took a week for me even to regain consciousness, and longer still for me to respond to people trying to talk to me. I lost basically all of my memory. I couldn’t remember the year, my birthday, where I lived, or even that I was sick. They tied me to the bed because in my confusion I kept trying to leave. I recovered most of my memory over the next few weeks. Thank goodness for that!
I suffered many complications. My abdomen was swollen with fluid and my lungs were so full of it that breathing was really difficult. I constantly felt like I was drowning. I developed a blood clot. There are four ways that liver disease generally decompensates. I have already experienced 3 of them.
A liver transplant would make all of these problems go away. I have heard from people that have had a transplant that THE VERY NEXT DAY their minds were clearer and their memories sharper than they had been in years. Without a transplant I will just get sicker until the disease kills me.
I’ve had more complications and more time in hospital since then. I am watching myself get weaker and sicker. I am dying, and only a transplant can save me.
Would you take a few minutes to help me please? I just need people to share my story.