Cirrhosis Symptoms

[Hep Editors]

From our Hep Lesson "Complications of Hepatitis C" http://www.hepmag.com/articles/2956_20528.shtml

Cirrhosis has two phases, compensated and decompensated. Compensated cirrhosis means that the liver is still functioning relatively well. At this stage, the early symptoms may still be vague and some people may be unaware that they have cirrhosis. The symptoms of compensated cirrhosis include:

    -Appetite loss
    -Confusion or difficulty thinking
    -Dark, cola-colored urine
    -Easy bruising and abnormal bleeding
    -Edema in the feet and legs (swelling from fluid build-up)
    -Fatigue (feeling tired)
    -Impotence, shrinking of the testicles, and breast swelling in men
    -Itchy skin (pruritus)
    -Jaundice (yellowing in the skin, mucous membranes, or eyes)
    -Muscle cramping
    -Nausea
    -Pale or clay-colored stools
    -Redness on the palms of the hands
    -Spider veins (small red spidery veins on the skin)
    -Weight loss

[Lynn K]

I guess I have a few
    -Easy bruising and abnormal bleeding
    -Edema in the feet and legs (swelling from fluid build-up)
    -Fatigue (feeling tired)
    -Muscle cramping
    -Spider veins (small red spidery veins on the skin)

I don't see esophageal varicies and ascities. I have had varicies banded and have a small amount of ascities but am still considered compensated.

edit:
OK read the article says those are decompensation symptoms but yet I am considered to be compensated maybe just barely

[gnatcatcher]

Thanks, editors. I found the list helpful because I'm trying to figure out whether to believe the FibroScan F4 or the FibroSure F2. When I go down the list of symptoms, they DON'T apply. To be more accurate, the only two that do apply have different causes in my case:
-easy bruising because I've been on a blood thinner for >15 years
-edema in the legs, except that mine is lymphedema in one leg from too many lymph nodes being removed during surgery before pathology reported back that no cancer was found in the removed parts, which saved the other leg from lymphedema

Anyway, I plan to bring the article with me when I see the hep expert in January.