"I consider myself a recovering alcoholic and will never touch alcohol again"

Neil’s drinking was initially social but his consumption increased until he was having 10-12 cans a day. When in 2022 his GP sent him for a scan, Neil was diagnosed with end-stage cirrhosis. Thank you for sharing your story, Neil 

When you are an alcoholic you don’t think about how much you drink, it’s like a drug and you have to get as much of it as you can. For me, drinking was all part of a social lifestyle – we would all go the pub after work and playing sports, but towards the end I was drinking 10-12 cans a day. Alcohol made me a different person and I’ve only got myself to blame. I wasn’t very nice and didn’t have a proper care for anyone, including my family.

My stomach started swelling in the summer of 2022 and my GP said it was likely to do with my liver. He put me on water retention tablets which helped and sent me for an ultrasound of my liver which showed cirrhosis and I was told I would have blood tests every three months.

Ascites drainage

At Christmas 2023 my children gave me a box of non-alcohol beer and I knew I was drinking too much, so on 2^nd January 2024 I decided to stop. It made me nasty at first, but I got through it.

In June that year I had a blood test in the morning and at teatime the hospital called saying I needed to come back with a bag because I was staying. I walked in and left in a wheelchair three weeks later. I nearly died. Because my stomach was massive I had two drains for the ascites and they took 12 litres the first time. The hospital was good, but it’s not a liver hospital so they had to keep phoning Leeds and putting me on different drugs.

After I was discharged I had to go back for a blood test every week and a drain every month. The drains were done by junior doctors and they put me through that much pain. They took six hours and sometimes I would go in at 9am and they’d only start draining me at 3.30pm and by the time they’d finished and checked me over, I’d be going home at 11pm. I was transferred to Leeds hospital in September and because they have a special liver unit their drains only took and an hour-and-a-half and I didn’t feel a thing.

My liver will never repair itself because I have end-stage cirrhosis

I had a full day of tests at my first appointment in Leeds and they put me on the liver transplant list at first, but after a period of time they took me off that. I had the TIPs operation, which didn’t hurt and I was only in hospital for three days. It’s also caused me to have an umbilical hernia repair.

My consultant’s main concern was the ascites and that has now gone away, thanks to the TIPs procedure and I will have a scan every six months. However, my liver will never repair itself because I have end-stage cirrhosis and I will need a liver transplant in eight to ten years’ time due to the extent of the damage.

‘One won’t hurt’

My legs and my golfing arm are a bit stiff as I haven’t used them in a long time, but the exercises they gave me using a spring that I compress has helped.  Other than that, I feel like a million dollars.

I consider myself a recovering alcoholic now. I haven’t had a drink since the day I stopped and will never touch it again. It would be very unfair to my family and the people who looked after me if I started again. Sometimes people will try to buy me a drink, saying “One won’t hurt” but my friends will either jump in and stop them or I give it to someone else. I only drink soda water now.

If you drink too much you have to accept that you’re an alcoholic to get better and to give up alcohol you have to want to do it for yourself.

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