The last days with Alcohol
Manipur can sometimes be a place, especially remebering
that , almost every form of drugs had been abuse. Be it nitrezepam(the
famous N10) to the asabas and heroins. It is alarming to come
across so many students and youngster who are so much into the
nitrezepam and spasmoproxyvon. But Alcohol surpases everyone
of the substance,remembering that 90% of the people all over
the world take alcohol in one time or the other. And with so
many rice wines and illegal foreign liquor outlets in Manipur,
we may be well within world averages,inspite of the prohibitions
and the Meira paibis.
Alcohol can and had brought about a lot of consequences. It
makes the weekend better for many, swasti pujas are another
manipuri fav drink time. Wedding and drinks,... pheijoms has
almost become the official yuthak phee. And for the countless
manipuri student, never a visit to home for vacation is completed
without counting the number of times we had visited one of those
places for asaba and atingba.
Infact Alcohol has occupied a a very influential part of almost
evryone, only thing is how much is worth the "influence". Statistically,
50% of the world population has encountered someone in their
family with alcohol related problems, which can range from the
minor scuffle among family members to alcohol related death.
For whatever reasons, people who have become addicted to alcohol - the quality
of life including the people around him, had decline. And
for the few strongs ones who had recovered, the quality of life
including the people around him - improves.
Keeping in mind of the huge alcohol culture and the consequent
numerous quarrels that had occured both in and out of the family,
maybe we got think again before the next drink.
Today there was a patient, an alcoholic and I thought it will
be good knowing what alcohol can really do our body.
We saw this gentleman, who rather looks like in his forties on
appearance. He was very short of breath, and had a massive body
with a typical beer belly.
Once we start talking, we found out that he has been drinking
10 cans of beer almost everyday, and was heavily depending on
it. Taking great pain and weight in adjusting him on the examination
bed, I had a close look. If he was a lady, we probably would
have ended saying , there was a twin in there, and won't mind
putting all my money in my pocket( very less!) for that.
During our conversation, he obviously had difficulty with the
problem solving skills, and was very slow when it comes to processing
of information. which I would most probably put down to his frontal
lobe of his brain and that they were not working optimally.
Remember, researchers have found that brains of alcoholics are smaller and
have an increased number of brain tissue loss then the comparable non
alcoholic.
Unfortunately for the hard alcoholics and those keen on it, according
to the premature aging hypothesis, alcohol is stated to "accelerate
normal aging" and make the young alcoholics older then they really
are. This kind of aging due to alcohol allows the younger non-alcoholics
of the same age, faster and quicker in cognitive abilities.
Which explain why our patient look to be in his late forties
then his actual 34 years of age.
But what concerns me was because of his prolonged alcohol intact,
was there anything sinister which was life threatening to him
at that moment.
On closer examination, his sclera or the white of the eye were
no longer white but tan with yellow - jaundice!. His feets were
swollen to his knees, body hair were less and he even got a breast(gynaecomastia).
His pulse were fast, and he was breathing around 40 times a minute.
I actually didn't enjoy counting his pulse as his hands were shaking
a lot.
Upon listening to his heart and chest they were a lot wet
and croaky and with a extra hissing sound to his heart sound.
The liver were hugely enlarged, and I bet there were at least
5 liters of fluid in his tummy. And it was tender just below his
rib cage on both sides of his chest. A quick neurological examination
reveal, his sensory system were awful for any daily activities
down below his knees.
My first impression, was liver failure with an enlarged failing
heart, and peripheral neuropathy and wanted to rule out pancreatitis
and/or any obstruction to the gall bladder tract....... and worst
of all, the probability of whether he going to die anytime.
Honestly he could die of pancreatitis, heart failure, lung failure, kiney
failure, liver failure, any failure which will eventually give a Tyson knock out
punch in his already traumatized shrunken brains. Alcohol really do effects everywhere and
anywhere in the body.
On further blood and other investigation, his vitamins levels
has gone down maybe an all time low, blood clotting factors an
all time high. He can bleed anytime from anywhere. Luckily, there
were not any visible bleeds.
There were severe disturbances in his body sodium, potassium, etc levels.
There were so much of unwanted acids accumulating, inspite of his breathing trying to
compensate for it. It is only a matter of time before breathing can no longer compensate if
left alone.
His heart were enlarged and weak, and was beating a lot faster,
and ever hungry for oxygen. Unfortunately many a territories
of the lungs were fill with fluids, instead of oxygen. increasing
the burden, kidney was very lazily working, not able to throw
the fluids out properly.
The liver, has enlarged itself to act against any alcohol
insult. But this time it seems to have cross its limit.
The tracing of the heart were not at all encouraging, and
the amount of oxygen in his blood were far from satisfactory.
The alcohol has declared full swing war on all his organs, and
Only God knows how long he will live without a new liver.
By the time, we came out of the hospital, just before I wrote
this mail... he was transferred to the intensive care unit. He
could not breath anymore by himself and had been put on a mechanical
ventilator. I have a feeling he will need dialysis in the late
evening.
He knew he might not live even another day for even a pint of beer.
B. Elangbam
Dr. Bishwajeet Elangbam is a doctor based in UK. You can email him at [email protected]
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