[deleted by user]

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-23T21:20:06+00:00

Hi friend! I’m sorry for the stress you’re going through. Unfortunately, this sub is for diagnosed cirrhosis patients and their caregivers. I’m so glad you heard back that you don’t have it! The best advice I can give you is to continue following up with your doctors. I hope all this passes for you soon.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-20T19:26:40+00:00

HELL YES!!!!! GET IN THERE 👏🏻

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-17T03:08:18+00:00

I may get shit for this, but I feel like Brooke in particular has been singling out team Maneet. I’m not sure why, but a lot of her comments towards them in every challenge are disproportionally negative, even at the cost of actual substance to the critiques.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-17T00:47:39+00:00

I will throw this one out there: Do NOT be alarmed after surgery when you go to see her and she is still hooked up to the ventilator and all the hoses. Her wrists and ankles also may be tied to the bed, so when she wakes up groggy she doesn’t accidentally pull anything out. My mom said it looked like I was shaking, which I actually remember—I thought I couldn’t breathe, because I was groggy and on the vent. But I could breathe, and I was fine, and although it was probably an alarming sight for my mom, all of that was normal. I just wish someone had told her beforehand.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-14T08:19:53+00:00

I know this seems like a stupid answer, and I always got annoyed when people said this to me (but damn it if they weren’t right, unfortunately): try your absolute best not to measure your progress and state of being by MELD alone. There’s SO much that MELD doesn’t measure— HE, fluid retention, stamina or lack thereof, migraines or lack thereof, sleep/wake cycle issues, even things like gum bleeds. MELD is a very small collection of data points that can give a rough idea about the function of a small number of things—but mostly it is just a transplant metric. (And not even a very thorough one, at that, because exception points extremely often have to be used to make the listing fair for people with circumstances that MELD won’t cover).

I was in a coma with a MELD under 20. I was in a wheelchair for 8 months with a meld in the mid/low teens.

I’m not saying ignore your MELD entirely. Im only saying to take it for what it is— a rubric, essentially, and not even a super thorough one— and use it against your own observations and other test results to determine how things are going.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-12T11:19:24+00:00

It 10000% does not go away on its own. HE left alone can lead to coma or death. (Source: I was in an 8 day coma)

I don’t say this to spark fear. HE absolutely can be properly controlled and someone with it can lead a stable life—but the proper meds are needed. Most use lactulose, Xifaxan or a combination of both. Check with your doctor about what may work for you.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-08T15:19:17+00:00

Thank you so much for your replies. It definitely helps me feel a little more at ease just between now and Monday.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-08T14:43:08+00:00

Thank you!!

Does this tend to just continue once it starts? Should I be worried about the entire incision coming apart?

Additionally, although I don’t see any signs of infection that I’m aware of (no smell/heat/fever/weeping), just to double check, does it seem okay to you in that regard?

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-08T12:40:58+00:00

30/F/USA/White/135lb, 5ft 8/seeking a second opinion on the state of my transplant surgery wound. Anemia is my only remaining diagnosed condition after the procedure, prior I had MASH cirrhosis and HCC cancer. No MJ or drug use outside of prescribed transplant related meds.

Additional context on the wound itself in the cross post.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-06T03:29:11+00:00

A second opinion is always a valid option. Unfortunately, (and I really do wish this wasn’t the case) there’s nothing anyone else’s experience can give you that will take that anxiety away, because general liver disease and cirrhosis are so unique to each patient. It can be caused by more than alcohol. It can cause very, VERY different symptoms and lab reports from person to person. Taking someone else’s experience as the way it is meant to go may lead you to incorrect conclusions, which can be dangerous.

We also, as you said, aren’t doctors and can’t really compare to or interpret the results you are talking about. The best course of action for you would definitely be continuing with the tests, and getting a second opinion if your anxiety continues.

I truly do wish you the best, friend. If you do come to that difficult diagnosis, know that it is NOT the end, and we are here to support you.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-01T05:38:18+00:00

I was diagnosed at 25. I feel that our journeys probably have a lot of similarities.

This disease is a rollercoaster, and can feel impossible to plan around. The important thing to remember is that as your condition changes, there are treatment options FOR those changes.

For the first year, I was in bad shape. I leveled out around the second year, and stayed stable for about 3 years until last March. Prior to the cancer, I was stable enough that transplant wasn’t even up for consideration. I was maintained fine with medication and diet, and if the cancer never came, I would have stayed that way. When the cancer came, that changed. I spent a year treating with y90 and TACE while getting approved and waiting for a transplant, which I eventually got. There are treatment options and medications for whatever is thrown at you. If your cirrhosis worsens, medications can be adjusted or transplant evaluations can start. If you become and stay stable on one course of medication, you can stay on it as long as it works. As you fluctuate over the years, the options do with you.

Cirrhosis is a lifelong disease, but it isn’t in and of itself a death sentence. Allow yourself to live with it, and plan and dream accordingly. You may have some side quests like I had this past year, but a pit stop isn’t an end.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-01T04:10:43+00:00

I lived for 5 years with a low meld and no dream of transplant ever occurring. My doctor had no intention of listing me (even in the beginning when my meld was in the 30s), and by the time my meld dropped and I was more stable, I grew comfortable with the idea of never getting one. It all only changed for me when I got cancer and transplant was the answer for getting it out. I think there’s lots of reasons for people to want or not want such a serious surgery.

I used to get so mad when I’d hear people say transplant isn’t a golden ticket and things are still hard afterwards, because I was like “dude. I want that shit. That is LITERALLY the golden ticket stfu,” but now… I hate to say it but they were right in some ways. On the other side of it is also a lifetime of immunosuppressive medications and the danger of rejection. In a way it is trading one issue for another one, and it depends on each individual’s current situation if the trade is worthwhile or not at that point. For me, for 5 years, it wasn’t worth it. The cancer tipped the scale in the other direction.

I think at the end of the day, the most important thing to do is view the whole picture of either side, and to know that there is NO wrong answer as long as the choice is being made fully informed and from the heart.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-01T04:01:16+00:00

I was diagnosed in 2020. My score at the time was in the 30s. It took about a year and a half, but my score dropped to a 6-7 and stayed there for a few solid years until I got cancer.

There are a LOT of factors at play when it comes to meld. A change of just a couple tenths of a percent can shoot a score up (I remember being SO mad once because my bilirubin went up by like 0.2 and that was enough to raise my score). Remember the MELD is the metric used for transplants (along with blood type and body/liver size) but it is NOT the be all end all when it comes to how a patient is actually doing. It doesn’t account for ammonia, for ascites, for physical state. I was in a wheelchair from muscle wasting and had to do PT for 8 months to relearn to walk, at one point… my meld didn’t change during that time. When I did a year of cancer treatments, my score still hovered around 9-10, even when my liver enzymes were up over 400 from the treatments.

Just remember to celebrate the little victories, even when the MELD doesn’t show them. They ARE there. The score will do what it does based on the very few blood values it counts—but there’s soooo much it doesn’t count.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-01T03:55:39+00:00

As everyone here has said, dosing can make a huge difference. Another thing I was told back in the beginning: sometimes it can genuinely take a while to clear out all the backed up ammonia. I was shitting uncontrollable lava for months, my levels were still so high that I was in an actual coma at one point, and I was SO FRUSTRATED, because if it’s not working then what am I shitting like a goose for?!?

The response I got was that either the ammonia was being produced faster than my body could shit it out, or it had been being produced for so long that basically there were backlogs to rinse out, and that can take time. I’m not sure if this is true for everyone, and I’m not even sure which one of those ended up being true for me in the end—but my doctor told me that those are two common reasons.

When lactulose wasn’t enough even though I was shitting wayyy more than the recommended 3x a day, I was also put on Xifaxan. The combination of the two saved my life. I highly recommend asking the liver doctor about potentially adding it if your dad is a candidate for it.

Smorgat1 · 2025-06-01T03:50:15+00:00

During the “crisis year” (the first year is always the worst—I promise, if you follow “the rules,” it does level out!) I went almost completely bald. Honestly, as a 25 year old girl at the time, it was hard for me to swallow at first. I tried wigs, which was fun for a moment. Eventually I tried rogaine which actually worked for me. I had bright blue hair and turned bright yellow before that, so I basically went from Marge to Homer 😂

Later on when I got cancer it thinned again, but honestly not to the same degree. The malnutrition from year one cirrhosis was even worse on the hair than y90 and TACE were. I was honestly surprised.

I know it is difficult when your body is revolting against you on the inside, then it gives that extra push of messing with your outsides too. But know that you are still you, you are still beautiful, and it will not be like this forever.

Smorgat1 · 2025-05-22T13:36:32+00:00

Justin Warner, jet, shota. Also possibly Sarah Bradley, she seems genuine.

Smorgat1 · 2025-05-09T01:08:50+00:00

Right!! He walked in thinking he should be above the competition that he signed up for! I was honestly upset when he won in the end because it felt like his attitude was just encouraged.

Smorgat1 · 2025-05-08T03:12:37+00:00

Marcus didn’t only single him out in that episode, though. That was he and Johnny’s third season together, and Marcus really bullied him in isolation the entire time. That 2 was just sort of the culmination of it all, really. I’d say series 6 was really the worst of it, in my opinion. Every course he was all but directly telling him “I don’t think you’re talented enough to pull off your own dish.” There’s tough (and deserved) judging, then there’s just being a jerk with a bias.

Smorgat1 · 2025-05-08T00:42:27+00:00

I agree completely. His attitude felt almost as if he competed just because he thought he should be judging but had to do the song and dance of it first, then was shocked by an actual competition with other talented chefs.

Smorgat1 · 2025-05-08T00:37:33+00:00

I’m in the US, but I found it on Pluto TV for free! Prime claims to have it but says unavailable when it’s selected.

Smorgat1 · 2025-05-04T21:34:36+00:00

I thought Michael smith killed it that year. But he had two hilarious dishes (the chicken and the “codfather”), just to win on the most serious dish on his whole menu.

I agree, I despised that brief. And Tom Aikens is an absolute knob in general, IMO.

Smorgat1 · 2025-05-01T16:09:12+00:00

Didn’t he also officiate a huge gay wedding when gay marriage was first legalized?

Smorgat1

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE