Thanks for the encouragement everyone:)
To answer a few questions, Richard has been sober for 3 years and was sober for 1 year when his liver failed. He was offered hospice last September by a small hospital in our town that the Ambulance drivers forced me to have him admitted to. The Staff there almost killed him, he was addmitted w/ hepatic encephalopathy and they pegged him as having the DTs. I am only sharing this horror story because that is how the hospice offer came to be. The first thing the ER DR did was shoot him up with Haldol and Ativan, enough to tranquilize an elephant! I was at home getting my clothes on and before I could drive my car to the ER he was knocked out cold and all he needed was lactulose enema (he was to far gone to take orally). It was my fault because we misunderstood how often to administer the medication and did not know (YET) what a hepatic coma was. He was there for a week and they had to call security on me because I refused to leave his room and I demaned that they stop giving him MORPHINE, Haldol and Ativan. He almost bled to death out of his penis where a cath was pulled out also herroraged from a IV in his neck and was vomiting blood when I arrived on day 2 because the nurse was shoving tubes down his throat. All of this blleding was induced by the staff and was not due to varacies etc. By day 6 The Dr. asked him if he wanted to die at home or in the Hospital, I knew he was not going to die and I was outraged, that is when hospice was offered. We have since found out that the patient has rights about the hospital he goes to!
I read everything I can get my hands on and each step of this liver failure has been textbook in my husbands case. He suffers from varicies, acites, edema, hepatic encepalopathy,spontanious bacterial peritonitis, low blood pressure, high potassium, fluid on the lungs etc.
He is listed with Loma Linda Transplant Center in Loma Linda, California. Things have settled down and all the horrifying surprises are over, I HOPE....and every new day is a GIFT for us. We are still in and out of the hospital though but when you learn to accept this as part of the process it makes it a bit more manageable.
I am so comforted to know that once he is transplanted that his mind will return to me, us. My heart goes out to all of you, and your caregivers who are suffering with liver failure.