Hi All! (VERY LONG! But what else is new from me? Ha ha)

[Guest guest]

I have been busy! went in for his routine bloodwrok - as well as his

listing labs - lat Wednesday. The triage nurse at the hepatologist office

called Thursday and said that his hemoglobin levels were 8.6 and was he

vomitting blood, having bloody stools, experiencing light headedness, was

excessively tired, etc. I told her no on all but the tired, but we really had

chalked that up to his brother and his wife and their 3 kids being in town

(visiting from Japan) and he was doing more than usual. She said, okay, just

keep an eye on him. The next day (Friday), a different nurse from the hep office

called and said that all of his blood work was back and that they wanted him to

have a transfusion, but, seeing as it was 4:30, they probably would not be able

to schedule it for Friday, but would work on it for Monday. I told him that he

had an appt with the hep at noon on Monday, so he said they would schedule it

for after that. In the meantime, we were

supposed to look for the things Bridgett had mentioned and also for fever and

if it was above 101 to take him to the ER. (As we are supposed to do anyway...)

 

Well, on Saturday, we were over at his cousin's house. just sat there,

then went to lie down on the couch. After about 15 minutes, he said he was going

to go sit outside in the van (Mind you, it was 101 with 70% humidity...) - he

said he was feeling chilled inside and cousin's house was about 78-80 degrees...

He sat out there for 20 minutes then called his dad to come get him to take him

home - said he didn't want to ruin our time. He called me an hour later and

asked me to come hom - he had been taking his temp and it was 103.5! So I

gathered up the kiddos and off we went. Dropped the kids off at my

father-in-law's house for him and brother-in-law, etc., to watch while we headed

to the ER. We told them why we were there and the ER doc said they were going to

admit him and tranfuse him. Then they did bloodwork and it came back that his

hemoglobin was 10.2! So, they called the on-call hep and he said go ahead and

send him home and after the other

test results came back, he would call us in the am. Got home at 2 am.

 

Sunday morning, Dr. Wong called us and said to stop his diuretics because it

looked like he was having some kidney issues. He was surprised that they hadn't

given him fluids in the ER as his bloodwork showed he was a bit dehydrated -

something they hadn't told him when they had called him. He said that he didn't

have the other results back, but if they came back, he would call us. (He never

did, so either things were okay or he didn't get them back on Sunday so just

left us to se the hep on Monday since I had told him he had an appt.) He wanted

him to get his tranplant labs first thing in the am so that they would be back

in time for our appt and to call and see if we could get in later that day, just

to make sure the labs were back.

 

Monday - we were at the lab first thing to get the bloodwork. Tried to change

the appt, but the nurse (same guy who called on Friday) talked to (Also

said that he didn't know what was going on, but blood levels didn't change that

quickly... )and long story short there, said that he would set him up an appt in

3-6 weeks with the hep. Um, NO! said he would keep his noon appt. The

nurse seemed upset and kind of shocked that he wanted to still see her! (DUH!)

told him that he had other things he wanted to ask her. He seemed miffed,

but said fine. We go back at noon. GOOD THING! He hadn't had his diruetics in 2

days and was already starting to swell. We talked to her about the Lactulose and

if it was what was making him be so gassy and feel so bloated and she said yes.

(I knew it was making him mean, but I didn't bring that up! Ha ha doesn't

realize he is mean, so I let it go! LOL) She switched him to Xifaxen. (Does

anyone know if this

will still make him mean? This attitude is getting HARD to deal with!!) She

said his MELD from the ER labs was 17. Then she went to get his labs from the am

and his hemoglobin was 8.5 (Um, so YEAH guy, they CAN change that quickly!!

GRRR) and his numbers on everything else were elevated in a bad way or low in a

bad way, depending on which result you were looking at... (too much to type out

and dunno what his MELD was then because she didn't calculate it since she just

got it...) So, they set him up for a transfusion for Tuesday at 8 am.

 

Tuesday we go in. He got 2 units. Afterwards, he felt VERY tired. He pretty much

slept all afternoon and went to bad at 7:30 and slept all night. Told me this

morning he felt short of breath yesterday evening. Um, that was something we

were supposed to look for! Thanks for telling me NOW! UGH! He was still VERY

tired this am. It took him 6 minutes to put his shoes on because he kept kind of

falling asleep in between! I took him into work (I did NOT want him to drive and

he insisted on going in) and it was a good thing - he slept off and on the whole

35 minute drive! At noon he called and asked me to call the triage nurse at the

hep office because his stomach is so bloated that he can't drink more than a sip

or two of water or he gets nauseated and he can't eat for the same reason. He is

VERY uncomfortable and he is simply exhausted and his temp is 99.2. They set him

up for a paracentesis for 1 tomorrow (first they could get him in! UGH!) with

instructions for me to watch him and his temp and if it starts to go up or the

pain becomes unbearable to take him to the ER.

 

HOWEVER, some GREAT news is that, as of noon yesterday my time, he has been

officially LISTED! YAY YAY YAY His listing MELD was 15...

 

So, that is MY lovliness right now! Thanks for reading if you made it this

far!! Ha ha ha I REALLY do hoep to catch up here soon! Life has just been SO

busy with the fam in town and everything going on!!!!

 

HUGS to all!!

 

Kerri

 

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www.transplants.org/donate/kevinjackson

Independent legal, business, and medical transciptionist

kerriaz@...