Philip was able to get a couple of pills down this morning, The headache is a little better, but the rash looks about the same to me. The nausea gets a little bit better and then it comes back. I think this may be connected to which medication they are giving him for the nausea. Today, his blood oxygen level was low so they had to put him on oxygen. I don’t think this is anything to be concerned about. We spoke with the Intern and the doctors will consult with each other tomorrow. They will come up with a plan for titrating up the pulmonary hypertension medication. I hope they wait to begin this process until the symptoms are gone. The pharmacist will also be involved in the discussion.
The hospital is unbelievably quiet. Any patient that could go home for Thanksgiving is gone, and every patient that needs to be in the hospital is in need of special care. I am told there are no optional procedures or tests scheduled around holidays. Philip is really not really aware that it is Thanksgiving. If you are heavily medicated for long enough you become unaware of time and dates.
Hello Randy, Phil and Lorrie
Phil my heart goes out to you the encephalopathy is so hard to control and deal with. Mike fell a few times before we realized what was going on, it also took us a few trips to emergency to get the answers. Mike would shake, especially his hands, he would be confused, same thing as you eat and vomit – with Mike it was the red meat that was the worst and if it was wild meat forget it – he couldn’t keep it down. The one medication that helped was lactulose – it makes you eliminate your bowels – it took us a little while to figure out the correct dosage for Mike but when he did he was able to control the encephalopathy a lot better. The other thing was his diet. Your right – many times you have no appetite. I found hot chicken with home made french fries worked the best – Mike really enjoyed it and he found it easy to digest. I will talk about that today on my blog. If you would like to send me an email feel free and if you have any questions for Mike or just want to talk again feel free to email me. I understand. The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was to watch Mike going through this so if your parents have any questions I will certainly try to help.
I just spoke with Mike and he says eat small meals – watch your SODIUM – we had to restrict Mikes – he would swell up – he didn’t need a tap and we made sure it stayed that way. Also check with your Doctor – we had to restrict Mike’s fluids (water) he was allowed a certain amount of milliliters per day.
Hope this is helpful
Heather
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moosewalker blog Liver
Thursday, November 25, 2010 11:14 AM
From:
“Heather Barkhouse”