I am writing this post from Mike's hospital room. The loopiness continued to get worse until I knew I had to take him to the hospital. It took me 40 minutes to get him out of the bathroom and into the hall, I had to call his brother to come help me get him out to the car. It took both of us to get him down the stairs and to the car. I have never seen him this bad! I was very scared. We got the the hospital and his ammonia level is at 186, his normal level is 90, and the average persons ammonia level is at 15-30.
Our sweet little girl (Ok not so little anymore) was so scared to see her dad that way. At 13 i dont think anyone could really understand what is happening to their dad. We finally called her mom and she came and got her and took her home. She had been staying with us because she is sick. Her deepest fear is that her dad is going to die! Which with the way he was last night could to her seemed like a very real fear or thought to have.
Mike has had one good moment today and that is when I told him that I was going to our youngest sons Christmas concert he got very sad and told me to tell Tyler he wishes he could have been there. After I left and the CNA came in, he told her he felt so bad that he was missing the concert. He doesn't know who I am but he remembers who Tyler is.
They have mike down in the ultrasound dept, they are removing the fluid from his abdomen. They are doing several other tests as well to see if they can figure out why he got so bad so fast.
This blog has been a great place for me to put down my thoughts.
I'm assuming Dr's have Mike on lactulose to combat the hepatic encephalopathy, but even with that, diet and fluid changes can trigger some big ammonia swings. When those levels start getting over 120-130 it gets very scary, and you know it's potential.
ReplyDeleteHave you examined the possibility of his large aceities volume being connected in some way to the ammonia swings? Just a thought.