My dad was recently diagnosed with cirrhosis and I have tons of questions!!!!

April 28, 2010

Well for starters hello and thank you for taking the time to read this, my name

is and I am 28 married with 2 kids.. My dad who's 50 got diagnosed by a

CT with cirrhosis and an enlarged spleen in the beginning of this month. He saw

the GI on 4/15/10 then on 4/21/10 he had an EGD done then on 4/22 I received a

phone call to come deal with my dad because he wasn't acting right. I went to

his house and typically he has moments to where he's disoriented (this has been

going on for over a year now) he complained of a headache etc all normal

symptoms of when he goes into these spells (Neurologist said it was epilepsy in

last June or so) I've took him to the hospital several times and they sent him

for a psych eval and everything just thinking he was crazy so this time I

thought since he had the headache it would be fine just to let him sleep it off

well his gross motor skills became very delayed and the way he acted in the best

words was like a trashed drunk who slurred and fell etc because he did so I

called 911 well when the medics got here they said he was disoriented and

incoherent and his pupils were fixed so they rushed him to the hospital and the

Dr came to me and said he was in the end stages of liver failure and his ammonia

levels were 57-55-54 all within three days they gave him lactulose. When the Dr

came to me Saturday he said that my dad had been in a coma all weekend (news to

me) he could talk etc just not recall anything that happened. So what I am

wondering is just how fast does this progress and my father is a single father

of two minor children and I am really terrified of the results I am seeing so

far and if anyone can guide me please do so. I mean I want to know like average

life expectancies etc so I can prepare myself and my family. Dr said typically

8-10 yrs then he followed up saying it could be 2-3 yrs and then he said he

doesn't even know what the next 3 months will bring and to hope for the best and

expect the worst.

Recommended Posts