Mike's Hospital Visit

One thing that happens when you are in Liver Failure is your ammonia levels skyrocket. Normal ammonia levels are:15 - 45 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dL). Mikes ammonia level is staying right around 90-95.  this is way to high and it causes something called Hepatic encephalopathy. hepatic encephalopathy is a decline in brain function that occurs as a result of severe liver disease. In this condition, the liver cannot adequately remove toxins from the blood. This causes a buildup of toxins in the bloodstream, which can lead to brain damage. Hepatic encephalopathy can be acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term). In some cases, a person with hepatic encephalopathy may become unresponsive and slip into a coma. 

This is why Mike won't remember the next 4 days I'm going to tell you about.
On Monday Nov 13 i noticed that Mikes was starting to show the signs of having to much Ammonia (Toxins) in his system.  He wanted to go to the hospital but I talked him into staying home and just taking more Lactulose a medication that is used to remove the ammonia from his system.  if we went to the hospital they would just give him large doses of the medication. Mike had a procedure the next day and so I thought we could just treat him at home.

Tuesday morning he woke up and was not doing well.  I called his Dr but because it was early the Dr. weren't in yet so we were told to go to the Urgent care office in Provo.  we went down and while sitting waiting for the Dr. his GI doctor called and told us it was useless to be at the Urgent care and so she sent in an order for labs, X-rays, and a Cat-scan to find out where his levels were at.

In the meantime I was getting very worried about him. he was not thinking straight and couldn't remember simple things like how to get dressed and how to run the remote or his phone.  at 2:30 pm we went to his procedure a endoscopy to find out why he had begun to throw up all the time.  the results of the test were OK except for the fact that he has a yeast infection on his esophagus. the Dr. started him on 2 new meds, (oh the joys, more money spent on meds!)

 Tuesday night Mallory, our daughter, came to our house so she could go to our wards young women's activity and talked her mom into letting her sleep at our house.

We had settled down for the night and Mike had become restless, he would get up and try to go to the bathroom.  he was very disoriented and I would have to help him find the bathroom.  about 2:30 Wednesday morning I was sleeping and heard a crash, Mike had fallen down. when he got up he tried to use the bathroom but he was in our room.  I rushed him the bathroom while trying to get there, he stepped over the gate even though the gate was open, I knew at that point we needed to get him to the hospital. 

 I called Mikes mom and asked her to come out to our house to be with Mallory and help her get off to school.  I woke her up to tell her we were headed to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital mike was almost comatose. 

We got to the hospital about 3 am, they could see right off that something was wrong so they drew labs to find out what his levels were. He was very agitated he would try to get out of bed, pull at the oxygen in his nose and the IV in his arm. He would try to talk and you could tell he knew what he was trying to say but it came out gibberish.  

I had never seen him this way to this extent before, I was pretty scared. He could remember my name but called himself Mateo (I have no idea where this name came from), when they would ask him the date he would give them his birthday. 

The labs came back and his ammonia level was at 95! They decided to admit him but had to wait until 6am when the shifts changed so he could have a 24/7 CNA because he was so agitated and wouldn't stay laying down. 

I left about 7 am to go help my mother in law get Mallory ready for school. I had called Mike's  mom when we had made it to a room in the ED she was hysterical she was lost. I guided her to our house, her and Mallory spent what was left of the night sleeping in the living room. Mallory was jealous cause the dogs slept with grandma! After they left I slept for a couple of hours  and headed back to the hospital.

They had giving Mike some sedatives trying to get him to relax, you could tell he wasn't asleep but he wasn't awake either. He was just very agitated, they wanted to do an MRI to see what was going on in his head. (When they had done a Cat scan they noticed a spot on his brain they were afraid he was having a stroke like event, that would explain some of his issues). They had to get him to calm down so he would hold still for the MRI. even on high doses of sedation he was still agitated, trying to get out of bed every few minutes.  This went on all day Wednesday.

I was getting ready to leave for the night but the nurse asked me to stay and help give him his meds for the night, they were having a hard time getting him to do anything. I got  him to swallow his meds and then came  the dreaded Lactulose! They were giving him 4 times his normal dose! It was in a cup that they put water in so he started drinking....... He looked at me so hurt and said, "the Dr said I don't have to take this anymore!" The only thing he remembers from Tues!  I put my head right down on his and told him that his Dr said he needed to take it so he could feel better, and he again made the same statement... the Dr said I didn't have to take this anymore, it was so quiet and pleading it broke my heart!!!😢 I finally got him to drink it and left. I cried all the way home! 

I get home and get a text from Mike's ex-wife, Mallory had heard me tell Mike's mom that they were thinking it might be a stroke like event and she was scared and sad. Emily asked if I could tell her about Mike's health so she would know how to help the kids. I then proceeded to tell her everything from the last couple of days. She would chuckle and say I'm not laughing but I don't know how else to react, there is just so much going on! I told her I completely understood. I do the same OMG chuckle when explaining things because it is so hard to believe this poor man is going through so much! 

The next morning I get ready to go back to the hospital (I should tell you we made a deal when we got married that we would not spend the night at the hospital, we needed our rest or we wouldn't be good the next day to help the other one that is in the hospital). I called my mom on the way over and cried........ what if he was the same way what if he wasn't going to get better! I was terrified!!!! How was I going to handle things if he didn't get better. I sat in my car for a long time too afraid to face the day! 

I get there and he is asleep, really asleep, the good sleep to help him get better, now I cried because I was relieved. He slept all day long. I could get him to wake up for a few minutes at a time, to feed him a little bit or to go to the bathroom even then he wasn't really awake. We had to call housekeeping several times to clean up his accidents. I thought I was past the getting peed on stage! (He's going to hate that I put this in!) This was the entirety of our Thursday! 

Friday morning when I get to the hospital he is awake!😁 and his is more himself then I had seen all week! He was going to be OK! We waited all day for the Dr to come. I had to leave for a little while to go to a job interview, I and still unemployed.  We continued to wait for the Dr but by 4:30 When he had not come I had to leave to get the kids and be a mom. Mike called me about 6:30 telling me the Dr said he could leave. The 2 younger kids and myself ran to the hospital to pick him up. We were so excited! He was home! 

Every sound for the next couple of days made me jump thinking he was sick again.