Hi Shannon,

On Thu, 6 Apr 2006, Robert & Shannon Nelson wrote:

> Mm, you've convinced me!
> So now I've learned something about cirrhosis of the liver... Wouldn't a
> person be feeling pretty horrible by the time the disease got to this point?

Generally speaking, I should think so. But there are always exceptions
- sometimes people who on xray of e.g. the spinal cord should be
incable of moving or screaming with pain never feel any trouble -
with autopsies the same.

It is of course also possible that there is no cirrhosis but perhaps a
thrombosis of the vena porta The point with cirrhosis in this respect
is that the flow of blood through the liver is impeded or blocked in
the end - so a thrombus may conceivably also do this.

> I'm remembering that he'd been playing with the kids, had apparently felt
> find to that point. What else could cause that besides alcoholism?

E. g. chronic hepatitis, but probably other things as well:
infections, acute hepatitis. The latter possibly also without
cirhosis, when you consider what happens in an inflammation. It could
probably also cause the blockage of flow through the liver.

All guessing on my part, of course - somewhat educated guess, but I am
no gastro-enterologist:-)

Regards

Luise
>
>
> On Apr 6, 2006, at 6:54 AM, Luise Kunkle wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 5 Apr 2006, Robert & Shannon Nelson wrote:
>>
>> > But could any of these situations (I recognize some, but not all) be
>> > related to the strangest part--that after death on pressure to the chest
>> > he bled from mouth, nose, ears?
>> >
>> Perhaps the putting on of weight was not fat but edema, anasarka?
>>
>> In that case it may have been a liver pathology, e.g. cirrhosis of liver,
>> this causing a sort of shunt to the vessels in the throat region. They
>> burst, because they are not made to withstand that kind of pressure and
>> massive bleeding occurs. This may have been the blood. This is often the
>> cause of death with cirrhosis of the liver.
>>
>> Disorder of the liver leading to cirrhosis often also involves
>> thrombocytopenia or such, so that the blood does not clot. This then would
>> make the bleeding even more severe. It may also explain why some time
>> after death the blood was still fluid, which it seems to have been from
>> the account.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Luise
>
>