From Cirrhosis to Marathon in 2 Years

If you would have told me that I would be going from cirrhosis to Marathon in 2 years, I would have laughed. In 2013 I was 29 and diagnosed with fatty liver disease due to heavy alcohol use, diet and obesity. I had already been advised to cut back on drinking and lose some weight, or continue my lifestyle and get fatty liver and cirrhosis. Sure, I agreed sobriety and weight loss sounded good and that cirrhosis sounded horrifying. I was certain that I wouldn’t have to worry about cirrhosis for another 20 years.  

I figured I had plenty of time… Well, I didn’t. 

In May of 2016, I was getting up to take my kids to school. As was the case, most mornings I could barely muster up the energy to drag myself out of bed, but I did. However, my feet were so swollen that I couldn’t squeeze them into my shoes.  Even with the laces loosened they still wouldn’t fit.  For my wife that was the final straw. She insisted that I go to the ER. 

Symptoms of Liver Failure

Not only was I swollen, my skin was yellow, and my eyes looked werewolf eyes.  These were the things that were visible, what I was hiding was that I was spitting up blood, vomiting often, rarely urinating, couldn’t keep my balance, and had become very weak. We got to the ER and within a couple of hours they had ran blood tests, admitting me into the hospital. I was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cirrhosis. 

As a matter of fact I was in liver failure. The doctors were working to make sure that I also didn’t go into kidney failure. Based on my lab work one doctor referred to me as “The Walking Dead”. 

The Walking Dead

“How did this happen so fast?” I asked myself. I knew I wasn’t living a healthy lifestyle but didn’t I have more time to turn it around?” Apparently the 3 years between the fatty liver diagnosis and this day in the hospital had been the time to “turn it around”. I completely ignored the warning signs and didn’t take the diagnosis of fatty liver seriously. 

Now I have a doctor telling me “If  you make it out of this hospital alive, I give you 3 months to live. I see people in your condition often, and usually they refuse to give up alcohol”. He said, “Cirrhosis requires you to stop drinking forever, and you won’t be able to do that”. I had heard the same words before and ignored them. Read about that here.

When he said that I became filled with anger and sadnes. I had 2 kids and lots of people who loved me. But as much as his words hurt, I knew there was some truth. I had tried and failed many times to get sober and healthy. I was determined that I was going to prove the doctor wrong. But how?

Cirrhosis sounded like a death sentence but I wasn’t ready to die. I wasn’t going to be doing a marathon anything soon either. However, if I was going down, I was going down fighting. Insomnia is common with both cirrhosis and early in sobriety so I had a double dose of it but I used it to my advantage. I stayed up all night researching how to overcome cirrhosis. I learned that even though the scarring is irreversible with a healthy lifestyle and no more alcohol EVER, there was hope of getting better.

I Admit that I Needed Help

I needed to find others who had been successful at long term sobriety. This led me to Alcoholics Anonymous. Many times I had told myself that AA wasn’t for me. I told myself,  “ I’m certainly not like those people“. I was smart, had a good family and wasn’t religious. I was desperate though. I hadn’t ever been able to stay sober for a few weeks, yet I needed to figure out how to do it forever. At my first meeting I felt terribly out of place.  I heard somebody say they had been sober for 30 years. I knew I needed what they had, so I reached out for help. 

 I also had to make drastic changes to my diet. Over the years I’d began to prioritize drinking and overeating marathons. I’d get drunk and together any food combination and eat it before passing out. In order to heal, I learned that I needed to go on a low sodium diet with very few processed foods and lots of fruits and vegetables. Based on my research I decided that the DASH diet would help my liver and overall health, yet was simple enough for me to stick to.

Getting Stronger Every Day

Another step I needed to take was to rebuild my strength and energy. At the time of my diagnosis I was barely had the energy to walk from the house to the car. My muscles had begun to deteriorate making it difficult to lift more than 10 pounds. I started slow but began to challenge myself. When something challenging became simple I’d challenge myself further. From walking down the block, to walking a mile, to doing the elliptical, to jogging a mile, to running 3 miles, all the way to running half marathons. 

From Cirrhosis to a Marathon in 2 Years

I went from a nearly dead, 310LB alcoholic who couldn’t walk a grocery aisle, to running a half marathon in less than 2 years. Of course, I’m skipping over a lot to get from May 2016 to February 2018 but what I’m telling you is that it is possible. We are all different, but just like I am a cautious tale of how quickly fatty liver can progress to cirrhosis , I am also proof that cirrhosis is not a death sentence. As a matter of fact, post  diagnosis I have become more happy, healthy, and fit physically, spiritually and mentally than I have ever been.

Stay Tuned: More about From Cirrhosis to Marathon in 2 Years

Over the coming months I hope to fill in some of the blanks of my story as well as share tips, advice, answer questions and even issue some exciting challenges on this blog and on social media.

Check Stephen out on IG @stepehenstaysclean soon. He’s ready to give a hand to anyone who is struggling with addiction and liver disease. Stay Tuned.