Anyone Know The Symptoms Of Acute Liver Failure?

[daffy654]

My daughter just phoned me as she is very concerned about a friend of hers who is an alcoholic and is diabetic. This woman has severe yellowing of the skin and the whites of her eyes and also has developed oedema(sp?)
Her face,fingers and abdomen are very swollen as if as if she is retaining fluid in her body tissue. My daughter tried to convince her to get urgent medical help but she refused and has now returned to her home. Should we call her GP and try and arrange a home visit? All sensible advice is welcome.............BTW we have already contacted NHS direct and they said to get her to hospital but she won't go.

[19john89]

Death is natures way of telling us to slow down.

[4GS]

http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/svc/alpha/l /liver/diseases/acute-liver-failure.htm

hope that helps daffy

[lynbrown]

The friend sounds very ill. If she refuses to go to hospital there is very little more you can do. As a diabetic alcoholic, she has been sailing too close to the wind for some time.
Does she not have any family member who could persuade her to seek treatment? She may be in danger of dying or slipping into a come. She might have a stroke and live for the next few years paralised and helpless - too awful to contemplate.

[cruella]

Sorry to hear about your friend.
Sounds like she has a serious illness but refuses to do anything about it.
You could always try to speak with her GP for advice but doctors and medical staff are not allowed to discuss patients with others, without their consent.
Only road open to you, I would think is to try to persuade her to see her GP, or go to hospital as you suggested.
Other than that, I am afraid there is little you can do. Good of you and your Daughter to try to help her.

[daffy654]

We have been worried about her for some years now,it is heartbreaking to see her go downhill like this. Her family have enough to cope with at the moment already.Her mum(my ex next door neighbour) died two years ago aged 49,her dad has throat cancer,her younger sister is pregnant and going irreversibly blind and she herself has suffered many miscarriages over the last few years(mainly due to her drinking).I think we will just have to keep trying to convince her that she needs help....unfortunately I think she may actually want to die after all she's been through so it will be nigh on impossible to make her see sense.

[Goodsoulette]

I would phone her GP, all the symptoms are pointing at cirrhosis of the liver. How long has she been drinking. The liver has an excellent rejuvination rate and she could recover very well from this. Just because she doesn't want help it doesn't mean her doctor couldn't force it upon her.

My nan was an alcoholic and my aunt went to her doctor in the end and he sent the community psychiatric nurse round to assess her within days.

[daffy654]

She has been drinking heavily for years goodsoulette,her GP knows all about her drinking and she was supposed to be attending AA but only went to two meetings.She doesn't actually want to stop drinking for her own sake and we have tried to make her see what she is doing to her family who love her to no avail.I think we will ask her sister to ring the GP and ask him to come and see her as a matter of urgency. Hopefully he will come but in these days of no GP home visits who can say what the response will be.
Thanks everyone(except 19john89) for their kind words and useful advice.

[Louisa 69]

Hi Daffy i'm sorry to hear about your friend. Call her doctor and explain the situation i would imagine her doctor would class that as an emergency visit. What about calling an ambulance ? How do you think your friend would react to that ? Whatever you decide to do she does need serious medical help. Keep us posted.

[Ethel]

If she refuses to see the gp or get any treatment at all, you should respect her wishes.

She cannot be treated against her will.

[daffy654]

Hi Ethel,the reason she won't go and see her GP is because she knows he will lecture her about the drinking (he does this every time she goes to him).
I wouldn't call an ambulance as she would refuse to go in it,and I wouldn't blame her,that happened to me once and all it did was waste the ambulance services' time.
I am hoping her sister will be able to convince her to seek medical treatment but if not then there is nothing any of us can do.I do hate to see a young mother do this to herself though.