Alcoholic liver failure/ cirrhosis

[Goinforawander]

Quite a sad story, but looking for some inspiration/hope.
My partner is in hospital with decompensated alcohol related hepatitis and cirrhosis after many years of extremely heavy drinking.
7 weeks ago, he was hospitalised following seizure. Detox happened with the horrors that are Delerium tremens, and initially the docs were cautiously optimistic that a decent recovery could occur if he remained completely abstinent.
He was discharged with a brief treatment with steroids which was stopped due to lack of response, and remitted when his bilirubin failed to trend down as would have been expected.
He then developed what we assume was hepatorenal syndrome and told that unfortunately the risk of death was very high.
he responded to treatment for this and his function remains normal now with no ongoing treatment for this. However, his bilirubin shows no sign of decreasing, and doctors say really the only hope is that in time the liver inflammation reduces and improves in function/potentially has some regeneration. Transplant is not on the cards (due to illness severity rather than exclusion due to the underlying cause of the whole situation). We are basically guarding him against infection so that he doesn’t die of sepsis.

Has anyone been in such a horrible situation? Please be as blunt as you like. After 2 months, I am fairly along the mourning pathway, and am just looking for others experiences.

I'm so sorry @Goinforawander.
It seems similar to my exH who died in June.
Alcoholic for years, had been warned and warned. I'd not seen him since 2022 but he had stroke in May, followed by all his organs shutting down over the following weeks. He also had sepsis and e-coli (he hadn't been washing, basically living like a tramp).

I spoke to a relative who spoke to him a few weeks after the stroke who said he was talking but not very coherent.
Dd spoke to the hospital who told her he had been put on end of life pathway on the Tuesday and he died on the Friday.

He was only 56. My dds are far too young to have lost their dad (they are all in their 20s) but we did our grieving a good while ago.

Sorry not to have a more positive story, but happy to handhold

Thanks HagCymraeg for your reply.
Sorry you and your children also went through loving an alcoholic and for all the crap that goes along with it.
My partner had been holding it together (even holding down a full time job until a couple of weeks before the hospitalisation.
It’s a blessing but also a kind of a dangling carrot that the transplant “might” be an option here, but without any significant improvement over 7 weeks I’m struggling to see that being possible.
He has declined very invasive interventions if they become needed if he were to become septic for example, so I just feel I’m waiting for things to go one way or the other. The docs still give a bit of hope. They reckon 50/50, whereas he was given 10% chance of survival at his lowest a few weeks ago.

My exH held down a full time job until 2018 then went downhill rapidly.
He was very ill in 2022 not long after i left him and there was a lot of talk about this being his rock bottom and this was his chance to turn things around. He was in a hepatic (?) coma but did survive that time and fortunately for him he did stop for a few months.
Does your dh want to stop? Thats the main hurdle

Yes, I truly believe he is ready to stop. The doc telling him he’s likely to die came as a massive shock to him. He was hospitalised for a week last year and I think that was “too easy”. Now that he’s been in 7 weeks and no sign of getting out, the severity of his situation has finally hit home.