Am I dieing?

[VoltronX]

Serious question.

About September 15th or so, I came down with signs that looked like mono. I was sweating every night, occasional fever , throat pains, weakness and tiredness. After about 2 weeks I went to the doctor and he did a sonogram and blood test. My spleen was about twice its normal size and I had "mild liver dysfunction", "mild kidney dysfunction" and my lymhnodes were acting up. I had about a 14000 White blood cell count.

2 weeks later.. my blood tests all came back basically normal. Everything much improved. General tiredness still around.

Fast forward 1.5 months .. I get a sore throat, a cough and a runny nose.. Basically I think a cold and a throat issue at the same time.. Throat thing went away... runny nose and cough hung around for a while.. but I think I recovered..

I took this as a sign that I was basically healed and got slammed out of my head (on maybe 10 drinks). The next day I was really hungover and at one point my whole body went numb.. I quit drinking for another 2 weeks and Ive basically felt fine but my spleen is hurting or atleast I think it might be. I sometimes think I am imagining the pain... the more I think about it, the more it feels uncomfortable.

I'm kind of a hypochondriac.. and I don't want to pay for any more hospital trips. Do I have hepatitis? Am I over thinking things? I doubt its from alcohol because I'm usually a 6 beers a night kinda guy and at 33 I think I'm too young for that.

so let me give a little info for anyone who knows anything about medicine
1) Ive had 1 sexual partner for the past 4 years (my wife).. I doubt shes cheated on me. Before that, I was pretty wild.
2) I drink on average 5-6 beers a night.. weekends I do about 8 or so... A lot of these beers are 3-4% light ones.
3) Ive probably had mono.. a sore throat and a cold in the past 2.5 months.. (maybe my spleen has just been real busy)?
4) Blood tests 1.5 months ago basically came back normal in regards to WBC, liver function etc.

I'm scared of hepatitis (though I dont know much about it) or some weird kind of cancer...

[pokinmik]

I dunno, I hate going to and paying for the doctor as well but if you are seriously worried it would be money well spent to get checked out, I'm sure a doctor would be happy to run a bunch of tests on you. My dad never went to the doctor for like 30 years then found out he had pretty well developed prostate cancer. I know he regretted not going to the doctor more.

[pc in NM]

Most PCP's today are good at treating common medical conditions and what they "suspect" they are seeing; but most stink at sorting through diagnostic dilemmas...

... I suggest being more aggressive with the PCP, and seeking some specialist "second opinions" if he/she balks....

[Merkin]

With a liver issue you shouldn't be drinking at all.

[Chicat]

We are all dying. Some of us quicker than others. If you want to slow the process, see a good doctor and stop drinking.

[Alieberman]

It doesn't take a genius to know that drinking 6 beers a day (for someone who has a liver issue) is not going to improve your health.

[Longhorned]

Serious answer.

Read Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.

[gumby]

The physical ailment may be the lesser issue. A sixer a night? Why? It's something my mother never faced up to, and she had a pretty miserable life. Not to mention peripheral damage to loved ones. The attempted rationalization on the alcohol content at least shows that you're thinking about it.

As for the rest, see a doctor. And be honest about the drinking.

[Irish27]

Here is a question you need to ask yourself, is alcohol more important to you than your wife and your life?

[ASUCatFan]

I recently got chewed out by my doctor (and quit drinking except for very rare and special occasions as a result) for drinking a six pack a week. 5-6 beers a night isn't healthy and sounds a lot like a serious habit to me. See a doctor and get help for your drinking.

[KaibabKat]

http://www.aa.org/

[scumdevils86]

Drinking a beer or 2 a day or a glass of wine a day is not bad for you but more than that is probably pushing it. I've definitely cut back on my drinking when I thought about it. On weekdays anyway

[FreeSpiritCat]

I became sober for one year on Halloween. I didn't drink every night, but did on weekends. When I start drinking I never know much I will drink. It's definitely like a Lay's potato chip. I would usually stop at 5-6 beers, but it wasn't uncommon to drink 1/2 case. Never had much of a hangover either. I could really hold my liquor. Maybe it is because I'm about 2/3 Irish and the rest is mostly German. After being a member of AA for over a year I realize if I start drinking again within a very short time time I would be right where I left off. I'm driving to Tucson on Thanksgiving because I acquired so many close friends in AA, including friends I run with and others I play tennis with. Taking action can literally change your life if you are serious.

[Longhorned]

I drink half a bottle of wine 1-2 times per week. My wife drinks the other half. Wouldn't mind that 7 days a week but, you know, triglycerides.

[VoltronX]

I am not drinking with a liver problem.

If I didn't clearly state before :

1) My liver tests were normal
2) I only drank 1-2 times in the past 3 months AFTER my tests were normal.

I hate hang overs and I only drink 2.5% calorie light beers. Not one person.. Not one friend, family member or anyone has ever accused me of having an alcohol problem in my entire life.

But I do appreciate all the AA links and alcohol redemption stories....



What I am concerned about is why my spleen would still be enlarged after 2.5-3 months?? Is that normal with mono?

I guess its my own fault for asking for medical advice on a message board.

See a doctor... don't drink so much.. thanks guys..

[VoltronX]

I recently got chewed out by my doctor (and quit drinking except for very rare and special occasions as a result) for drinking a six pack a week. 5-6 beers a night isn't healthy and sounds a lot like a serious habit to me. See a doctor and get help for your drinking.

This doesn't make any sense.. that's less than 1 beer a night.. Alcohol is not inherently bad for you. In moderation, its actually quite healthy. 1-2 drinks a night isn't going to kill anyone and I can't imagine any doctor worth their salt chewing you out over this.

[pokinmik]

I don't care what any study says....no alcohol is way better for you than some alcohol or alot of alcohol. I think a doctor should tell people to cut it out or watch themselves if they are drinking every single freakin day, even just a drink or two.

[Chicat]

I am not drinking with a liver problem.

If I didn't clearly state before :

1) My liver tests were normal
2) I only drank 1-2 times in the past 3 months AFTER my tests were normal.

I hate hang overs and I only drink 2.5% calorie light beers. Not one person.. Not one friend, family member or anyone has ever accused me of having an alcohol problem in my entire life.

But I do appreciate all the AA links and alcohol redemption stories....

In your OP, on the list you made #2 was "I drink on average 5-6 beers a night.. weekends I do about 8 or so..." and that's what we all were reacting to. It seemed like you had declared yourself good to go back to drinking heavily and that's what we were commenting on.

And yes, a sports message board is about the last place I'd go for medical advice, but you should be cheered by the fact that a group of total strangers seem to have your best interests at heart.

[pc in NM]

FYI, good information

How “Normal” Is Your Drinking?

Navigating the alcohol consumption curve.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_an ... ingle.html

A couple of weeks ago, the Washington Post put out a shocking chart that shows how much alcohol U.S. adults consume, and it was plain to see where I fit into the distribution. My weekly total, still shy of a dozen drinks, puts me in the very drunkest quarter of Americans. Almost 30 percent of the country never touches alcohol, the chart declares, and another 30 percent do so only on special occasions—at most once every couple of weeks. And then there are the rest of us, the inebriate winos like me and all my friends and almost everyone we know.

The more I thought about these data, the stranger they seemed. My 11-drink-per-week habit corresponds almost exactly to the national average, 556 drinks per year. But according to this chart, that number would be grossly misleading, since it combines the huge number of people who never quaff at all with the much smaller group who drink like it’s their job. (Those in the top decile of consumption swig an incomprehensible average of 74 drinks per week.) When I compare my habit to the median instead of the mean, I find that I’m dosing myself with 10 times more alcohol than the typical American.

At first I thought the figures must be wrong. But the author of the chart, Christopher Ingraham, had pulled them from a 2007 book by the Duke University economist Philip J. Cook, who drew from fieldwork conducted by the Census Bureau for the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.* Cook’s NESARC data are a little old—they come from 2000 and 2001—but by all accounts they’re unlikely to have changed. In fact, the pattern they represent, with a tiny minority responsible for almost all the nation’s drinking, has remained more or less a constant over many decades, and it seems to hold for other countries, too. It’s like a golden rule for alcohol research: No matter where or when in history you look, consumption fits into the same, skewed distribution.

[Longhorned]

So I'm on the cusp of the critically acclaimed Eighth Decile. I would just have one glass of wine a night instead of five glasses on Friday and Saturday, but then I'd really end up drinking 2.5 glasses a night every night like I used to. Because, you know, the bottle is open, and after one glass the will power is out the door in any case.

[ASUCatFan]

I recently got chewed out by my doctor (and quit drinking except for very rare and special occasions as a result) for drinking a six pack a week. 5-6 beers a night isn't healthy and sounds a lot like a serious habit to me. See a doctor and get help for your drinking.

This doesn't make any sense.. that's less than 1 beer a night.. Alcohol is not inherently bad for you. In moderation, its actually quite healthy. 1-2 drinks a night isn't going to kill anyone and I can't imagine any doctor worth their salt chewing you out over this.

Actually, any amount of regular alcohol consumption can be a problem if it is habitual. In my case it was, and it was adversely affecting my hereditary high cholesterol.

People aren't bothering you about your drinking to be mean or to make you feel bad, what you have described is a pretty excessive amount of alcohol to consume and it could be contributing to your health problems. Ultimately, whether you want to hear that advice or not is up to you, but consider what other motivations we might have when you lash out.

[gumby]

I am not drinking with a liver problem.

If I didn't clearly state before :

1) My liver tests were normal
2) I only drank 1-2 times in the past 3 months AFTER my tests were normal.

I hate hang overs and I only drink 2.5% calorie light beers. Not one person.. Not one friend, family member or anyone has ever accused me of having an alcohol problem in my entire life.

Prove it. Spell "dying."

[Longhorned]

I'm going to learn how to spell before I dye.

[UofACat23]

I don't care what any study says....no alcohol is way better for you than some alcohol or alot of alcohol. I think a doctor should tell people to cut it out or watch themselves if they are drinking every single freakin day, even just a drink or two.

How can you not care that scientific studies show that it is significantly healthier to have a drink a day than to completely abstain?

http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health- ... thy-87891/

I highly recommend reading this article, but here are some highlights:

In fact, the evidence that abstinence from alcohol is a cause of heart disease and early death is irrefutable—yet this is almost unmentionable in the United States. Even as health bodies like the CDC and Dietary Guidelines for Americans (prepared by Health and Human Services) now recognize the decisive benefits from moderate drinking, each such announcement is met by an onslaught of opposition and criticism, and is always at risk of being reversed.

In 2006, the Archives of Internal Medicine, an American Medical Association journal, published an analysis based on 34 well-designed prospective studies—that is, research which follows subjects for years, even decades. This meta-analysis, incorporating a million subjects, found that “1 to 2 drinks per day for women and 2 to 4 drinks per day for men are inversely associated with total mortality.”

So the more you drink—up to two drinks a day for woman, and four for men—the less likely you are to die. You may have heard that before, and you may have heard it doubted. But the consensus of the science is overwhelming: It is true.

In the largest prospective study ever conducted for alcohol, involving nearly a half million subjects, sponsored by the American Cancer Society...[they] examined all causes of death related to drinking among middle-age and elderly subjects... The overall death rates were lowest among men and women reporting about one drink daily. Mortality from all causes increased with heavier drinking, particularly among adults under age 60 with lower risk of cardiovascular disease. This seems to say, “Never have more than a drink a day—or you’re doomed!” But, For all levels of drinking, including the highest one, for both men and women, death rates did not reach those for abstainers.

Drinking 10 drinks Friday and Saturday nights does not convey the benefits of two or three drinks daily, even though your weekly totals would be the same: Frequent, heavy binge drinking is unhealthy.

Driven by the cultural residue of Temperance, most Americans still view drinking as unhealthy; many call alcohol toxic. Yet, despite drinking far less than many European nations, Americans have significantly worse health outcomes than heavier-drinking countries. (For example, despite being heavily out-drunk by the English, we have almost exactly twice their levels of diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.)

[scumdevils86]

I am never sure if I can trust someone who doesn't drink.... I"m trying to keep it to that 10-15 drinks a week sweet spot.

[pokinmik]

UofACat23, I admit I'm a science-ignoring Republican on this issue haha. People all over the world love to drink, always have and always will, whatever makes people feel better, there are studies for everything and also alot of additional factors with some of those quotes.

One drink a day isn't that much, so I'm sure it's not a big deal for health...I'll just never make the leap to say that boozing is in fact HEALTHIER than simply drinking water every day. Water is the greatest liquid we have, it is borderline magical.

And I'm not trying to be judgmental or anything, I still drink somewhat frequently socially and don't care what anyone does. It really comes down to knowing your body, and I know booze doesn't make me feel that well afterwards, even after only a beer or two. It doesn't compute with my brain and body that booze is healthier than no booze.

[scumdevils86]

Well I drink at least a gallon more like 1.5 gallons of water a day and I was drinking several beers a night almost constantly. Definitely love drinking tons of water. People at work look at me weird because of how often I'm refilling my bottle.