LFT Blood Tests

[Smithy92]

Apologies for another new thread, but GP is being more than unhelpful.
Dad is drinking 1L vodka daily, has Gastritis, not sure how bad his liver actually is but is somewhere between Fatty liver and Cirrhosis (long term heavy drinking so presumably rather damaged now), mental health is poor, incredibly wobbly on his feet now and struggles to walk without falling, fully fully dependant.

My question is, and I get this will be different for different circumstances but my dad's Blood Tests / LFTs have been recommended to be upped from 1 every 5 weeks to 1 every 2 weeks. Presumably this implies his liver / situation is much much worse than last time? Has anyone experienced anything similar i.e. GP shortening duration between tests?

Oh god that’s really frustrating re: the signs of wernickes and not getting treated . This is why I’m hoping for a proactive alcohol care team at the hospital . Maybe ask that question if you call for an update . If they can get the team involved your dads care will be more focused regarding his likely withdrawal which needs to be managed safely and also his Wernickes - korsakoff syndrome .

Have just given a call now @Adm1010 and have had some sort of update this morning. He has bleeding between his brain and skull (from one of his falls presumably and they're not sure how well that will recover). He's still getting really bad tremors and are yet to assess his liver and stomach, but they've really listened and are helping a lot.

Aw at least now he’s receiving care and treatment . How are you ?

Stressed, feeling positive they're hopefully going to get to the bottom of his stomach issues, liver severity, and brain / psychological issues. But frustrated the GP has ignored all instruction we've given when they're the expert.
Thankyou for asking though, it's really nice to have some info / guidance from others more knowledgeable so I really appreciate it.

It’s all very complex , as now they’ve found what sounds like a subdural haematoma this is going to complicate the investigating of his symptoms in regard to the wernicke- korsakoff syndrome as clinically it will be hard to determine what is the actual root of his neuro symptoms . But I guess they will treat from the point of view of wernickes ( thiamine infusion )as a starting point , he’s got a perfect storm of stuff going on here sadly!

Its good that he is in hospital and having tests, at some point when all the test results are back, it would be useful to have a meeting with his doctors to discuss the severity of his illness, his prognosis and what care he will need and where he can be looked after.

@Adm1010 do you mean brain bleed / alcohol could be the cause and they can't determine which, or Korsakoff's and brain bleed have similar symptoms so may not be Korsakoff's?

@MayThePawsBeWithYou agreed, I'm hoping we get some stomach / pancreas / liver updates this afternoon irrespective of the outcome, as we'll at least know the extent of the damage then. I'm just glad all of these discussions are now with hospital doctors / nurses as apposed to his GP as realistically he's been the same for a few months so should have been getting something like this a while back.

Wernickes in the acute stage is relatively easy to diagnosis on a background of alcohol excess , it has very distinct symptoms . Korsakoffs is a little more difficult , it comes under the umbrella of alcohol related brain injury and diagnosis is often clinical judgement from observing a person alongside signs of frontal lobe damage on a CT scan . If your dad also has a brain injury / bleed from a fall this complicates things further as separating symptoms is complex . Sometimes medics can miss the frontal lobe damage or write is off as no immediate issue if they are concentrating on the brain injury / bleed from the fall . Hope that makes sense

That makes sense thanks. Today's update is basically he's still in hospital (will be til late next week) but they're still struggling to calm him tremors even with the strongest dosage medicine they have. They've found a bleed on the brain which has caused some brain damage as well as some older pre existing brain damage. was needing to measure him on coma scale earlier as he was unresponsive but has come round slightly (still with tremors and a temperature though) this evening.

Liver, pancreas etc to be assessed this week.

Sorry to hear your dad is so poorly, the shaking could be the effects of alcoholism or maybe a high temperature if he has an infection. My thoughts are with you all.

The medication he will have been getting to deal with the withdrawal symptoms are benzodiazepines and can cause drowsiness in high doses . It’s a tough balance to get right . It could be that causing the reduced GCS .

The pre existing damage is possibly frontal lobe damage supporting diagnosis of Wernicke- korsakoff syndrome .

Again I’m glad he’s getting treatment now x

Hi there I have been following your posts and was wondering how your dad was doing

@lovelovelove2 thanks too asking, he's not too good and has brain surgery coming up which is concerning following some damage / bleeds but is in the right place and hopefully the surgery helps with a lot of the current issues.