Husband sepsis

Yeah Dorothy, You gotta stay on top of the lactulose. Good call on the emergency room also. I slept for 3 or 4 days when hospitalized once. Very easy to slip into a coma.


Ziff

Dorothy,

Deja vu...I've been in your exact shoes...early October 2010. Mike was on the couch for several days. He was on and off goofy, but nothing serious. Then he started with the fever and became hard to arouse.

I kept wondering if he just slipped into a nice coma and slipped off, that might not be the worst thing that could happen....he was feeling so awful and it seemed impossible that he would get a TP. I was overwhelmed, tired, etc.

I asked the forum, and Connie gave me the rule: fever, unable to arouse, not drinking fluids...get to ER. So we did. And I'm glad we did....you do the math...October 2010 to present is OVER THREE YEARS of LIFE.

The diagnosis was sepsis, HE and really messed up electrolytes. They kept him 5 days on IV drugs..I think vancomycin and a second drug I can't recall. They culture the blood to determine which organism is involved and then prescribe an oral medication for at home.

This was Mike's first of many hospitalizations prior to TP...about one a month...

Each time he presented with one thing or another...pancreatitis a few times, but each time he also had acute kidney failure and sometimes low sodium (Hyponatremia). They balanced him out, gave lots of fluids and supplements, sometimes he got platelets, and they sent him home again for a few weeks.

That first time, with the sepsis, we went to a community hospital, but that was a nightmare. We got started with the hepatology department at UMiami/Jackson the day he got out of the community hospital. Each time I would drive him down the 2 hours rather than get caught with the substitute replacement doc who didn't know anything about liver disease in our local hospital.

Note to all: be sure you (or your loved one)are(is) seeing a Hepatologist...not just your family doc or a regular GI doc.

Dorothy, I hope we hear that he is doing well after the draining and a few days on the antibiotics.

Hugs,
Carol

D

The second drug Mike took was Flagyl. Iv.

C

Dorothy

Please update us as soon as you can, hope hubby is improving!

Hugs,
Mae

Thanks for the update Dorothy. Remember deep breaths. Glad hubby is feeling better. Hopefully the infection can get under control. Hang in there!!

Sandia

Just letting you know We Are HOME!!!.
Thanks for all your kind words
Dorothy

Hi everyone
Well hubby home and feeling pretty good for now. He had a blood infection. They don't know where he got it from. but said it might have been when he had all the dental work done for the transplant team. They also had to drain his chest and belly all in one day.
Now for why we have not heard about being put on the list.
we found out while there hubby had blood work done on Dec 10th for transplant center. In that blood work he tested positive for thc. well when they told us about it we said no way could that be right. So after them doing some checking they think it was a false positive from a medicine he was given when he was in the hospital in Nov. he only tested positive one time on Dec 10 and not Dec 20. So now the transplant doctor was going to bring it back to the committee. Now we have to wait and see what is going to happen.
I would hate for him to have to wait months for them to decide to put him on the list. as it seems he has been getting sicker every week.
Well thank you all for your prayer and kind words
Dorothy

WOW Dot,

They waited 6 weeks to tell you this????

My docs don't consider thc to be a problem. They're worried about alcohol and dangerous drugs.

What is THC?

Oh...thank you for explaining it to me Ziff

Dorothy, I bet Tuesday can't come fast enough. Let us hear afterwards. I hope there is more clarity regarding his long voyage.

Hugs,
Carol