Hi, I am new to the forum. Sorry if this is long, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't confusing. This forum seems very helpful. It's hard to find anyone who can understand.
My dad has cirrhosis (ESLD) and has been having severe complications as a result. He is going to be 68 this year. Most recently he suffered a seizure and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. This was on Christmas Eve (12/24/07). He was admitted to the ICU with acute liver failure and was in a coma. The doctors said that he would either come out of it or not. Suprisingly to us he did come out of it on 12/26/07. He stayed in the hospital until New Year's Eve and was sent home.
He is very confused again and my mom is extremely stressed out because he keeps leaving taps running, elements on, tries to go out on his own (driving/shopping), is difficult to understand when he speaks, sleeps almost all of the time, is confused, has a hard time getting to the washroom, has very bad shaking/tremors, etc. She feels like she can't sleep due to fear of what he is doing.
He seemed like he was getting better when he was in the hospital, but now it's starting to seem like he is going to end up in a coma again. All the fluid is coming back into the abdomin and the other symptoms keep getting worse. He is very uncooperative and just wants to sleep.
He has a hernia that he needs to have operated on, but he can barely walk from the bedroom to the bathroom, let alone getting him out to see a doctor. To make things even more complicated they (mom & dad) are moving in 3 weeks, and we don't know how dad is going to be able to travel.
From what I have read (on here and elsewhere) it is hard to know what is going to happen next. He was recommended for a transplant back in October, but for some reason the hospital never received his info. The specialist has put an urgent request through again and we should here back within a week, but they are moving to our (my husband and I) area, which is 5 hours away from the transplant hospital, so we don't know how dad will even make it down there for all the testing and assessments. We live in a suburb of the city, but they do not do liver transplants here.
Does anyone know if there can be improvement when things are this bad? We just don't know what to expect at this point. We are prepared for the worst, but very unsure. We want to be hopeful. Our boys adore my dad, so it is hard for them to understand that he is very sick. They are only 6, 5, 19 months, and 9 months.
Thanks in advance for your replies.