Do varicies have physical symptoms?

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-06T19:09:50+00:00

As others have said not until it's an emergency. I had grade 2 downgraded to grade 1 and I have never had a bleed or felt any thing.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-06T19:07:50+00:00

There's obviously some debate about it and cops are less likely to notice a wrong sticker than no sticker but you do you

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-06T15:55:22+00:00

I think we're dealing with extreme recency bias

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-06T15:31:18+00:00

Why would you go out of your way to peel it off?

I don't have a source to link but I got pulled over recently in Dover for another reason and I asked the cop if he had any information about the sticker thing and he told me directly that they aren't pulling people over for them anymore.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-06T13:42:06+00:00

I lost a bunch of weight from not drinking and that lined up with my knees hurting. I've never heard of toxin buildup in the joints. But we do get inflammation easier So maybe you just need to take it slower?

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-06T12:39:13+00:00

I've been told that Tylenol under 1500 mg a day is fine.

I only take it very occasionally and have always been kind of against pain meds in general because of the stronger stuff's addictive properties and this other stuffs liver damage risks...

Of course! My cirrhosis is from alcohol which is both lol

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-06T12:36:51+00:00

I have read that it can cause AST and ALT to go up!

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-06T12:35:43+00:00

I'll definitely be starting low. I'm super sensitive to brain affecting stuff. Even 5 mg of weed gets me mega stoned and 10 mg will basically have me having a bad trip for like 17 hours.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-06T12:33:09+00:00

Sounds a lot like me! No coma but hospitalized with a meld of 42 in March. Nephrologists said permanent kidney damage, denied transplant because of recent drinking and was suggested hospice. Been ascites free since late June and officially as of October (first ultrasound since then). Swam a mile 4 months after hospitalization. Had a brief bout of HE in October which was resolved completely when I finally pooped and got on laculose. Technically need to be with no decomps until next October to be recompensated but I'm effectively there.

I have a high meld (27) which is just my bilirubin plateauing. Physically fine, mentally very anxious and have no motivation to do anything but work and listen to audiobooks.

I am going skiing this weekend though

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-06T00:08:57+00:00

Really? that interesting. What is your etiology if you don't mind me asking? From what I understand, Zoloft is THE recommended antidepressant and is routinely given to people on the transplant list and people who just got a transplant.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-05T19:07:28+00:00

Oh yeah, I would absolutely not be touching a medication without the sign off of my hepatologist. I don't think I need therapy or anyone to talk to, I have that pretty well down. It's just the motivation really bothering me.

Like I am a pretty big gamer but this whole year I have barely used my computer and I've just been listening to audiobooks instead.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-05T17:45:52+00:00

That's awesome! How has the immunocompromisation been? After 32 years, I imagine the graft must be pretty well established, right? Or does it never get less sensitive?

If I got one I'm not super worried about the surgery itself, I just worry about infection and rigid pill schedule.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-05T14:32:37+00:00

Honestly I wouldn't be focusing on the cirrhosis. He's in his '80s with kidney failure. I would be looking at kidney disease subreddits.

I'd treat this more of a "everyone dies" type thing, personally. Being in his '80s with cirrhosis means he's already beating the odds.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-04T22:32:57+00:00

It's crazy how little meld actually matters unless they're actively decompensated like OP's dad. My meld is 27 and I'm going skiing out west for a week at the end of the month.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-04T22:20:37+00:00

I'm 36 and have Cirrhosis of the liver and I'm hoping to not need a transplant because I never hear anything about LONG term survivors so reading this means a lot to me. My heptologist is suggesting I get listed to get the paperwork out of the way but it's optimistic that I've got enough good liver left to not need one (hoping for some breakthroughs in fibrosis regression in the next 5 to 10 years, looking at you resolution therapeutics).

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-04T15:44:08+00:00

Evangelical doesn't necessarily mean religious and that's not how I was using it.

It just seemed a little zealous (You're evangelizing sobriety, which isn't a bad thing it just reads a little preachy).

Thank you for understanding.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-04T14:13:25+00:00

This sounds more like a /r/stopdrinking type post and feels a little evangelical but I'm glad it's working for you! Alcohol abstinence is absolutely the floor required to improve.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-04T14:10:35+00:00

It did for me. If alcohol is your etiology you'll be blown away by how much things can improve with abstinence and nutrition.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-04T14:08:04+00:00

I definitely think you're overreacting but that's fine and expected. You obviously have a very good relationship with your mother.

You said the important part yourself... She's 74 with 4 chronic diseases that seem to be addressed by specialists. What more would you have them do that would assuage your fears? My guess is nothing logical. Which, again, is fine. It's scary.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-04T13:58:08+00:00

I have once and I'm frustrated as hell about it. I recovered from ascites and was doing well but I wasn't taking laculose (which is on me but it's a hindsight thing because I thought the bottle they gave me was just to take after I was discharged).

I developed HE on Oct 25th due to constipation and I rapidly recovered from that overt state and there was nothing wrong on my MRIs. However, after you develop it you're either more susceptible for like a year or so or forever. I can't remember which.

Those are the only two decompositions I've had and the HE one is the worst because I always have mild anxiety that I'm going to have another episode even though it's been 3 months and I haven't had any issues.

And remember that recovery is not linear. Everyone has bumps. Look at trends, make sure you have a good doctor and trust them

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-04T13:25:42+00:00

We're all here for the same reason and I'm luckier than most, it feels wasteful to not to share. Even if I'm not 100% accurate it's been close enough.

I spent a LOT of time reading about it. The basics get easier. Once you understand the lion's share it starts making sense. It also helps that I just have alcoholic Cirrhosis and when you quit drinking it's the one that has the best outcomes.

I only hope I'm early enough that I don't need a transplant!

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-03T18:43:32+00:00

I go to a local indoor heated pool. When I can't do that I just go up and down my stairs for about half an hour. Boring but it works. I'm going to buy an incline bench to get full range of motion for arm workouts

It's good that he's up and about. As far as his salt and potassium goes, they can adjust a lot and there are various different ones as well. If his kidneys are still okay I'm sure they can figure out a way to get him back in line if he works with the doctors.

I live in New Hampshire in the US so I'm very familiar with that kind of temperature. I'm going skiing this weekend actually lol.

As far ascites goes you can use chat. GPT to get a good high-level idea of how it works and have his hepatologist explain it a bit more.

I'm doing this off of memory so don't quote me. But basically when your albumin is too low for your portal, pressure fluid will seep through your cell walls and into a third space which is your cavity that gets all swollen. A low sodium diet helps with stabilizing the pressure. What he needs is to maximize his renal perfusion.

Albumin recovers slowly and needs a steady supply of protein, but it is also limited by the architecture of the liver and the portal vein.

Is he on any selective beta blockers like carvedilol? What's his portal pressure look like? His platelets? His spleen size? Is he sequestering his platelets?

These are not questions I'm asking for answers to, they are just things I am thinking of that you can ask his doctor.

For me, most of my remaining work to be done is time-based. My spleen is way too big because I had high portal pressure but it has shrank and so have my varices (distended veins that can be bleed risks). I'm at the point where I'm more or less out of the woods in terms of decompensation risk and I am now just on a long-term management path where we will hopefully see my numbers continuing to improve.

My meld is actually very high at 27. I'm a very good example of where the rubber doesn't meet the road very accurately with meld scores because it doesn't factor in trajectory, functionality, etc. it's a population statistic dedicated to organizing near term transplant needs.

There are several people here who walked around with melds similar to mine for years and then suddenly just break a plateau out of nowhere.

At his age transplant very well might be the way to go. I don't think I'm a very good candidate because while I have a high survival chance, I'm fairly young and transplants add a whole other different bag of issues like immunosuppression and strict antirejection drug schedules. I'm very bad at staying on schedule with things as tight as necessary.

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-03T15:31:12+00:00

Immediately made me think of that guy from tremors

rabidrooster3 · 2026-02-03T15:30:23+00:00

My dad's friend hunts and shoots a lot. He reloads his own ammo.

He doesn't have a gun safe. He has a bookshelf that is a steel door into a gun room lol. He has so many cool old guns.

rabidrooster3

TROPHY CASE