Re: liver Cirrhosis

August 17, 2008

Stefani - (btw - for those who don't like to read about body functions,

please skip) I used to get utis all the time until I was told what causes

them. They are caused by bacteria in feces. They are transferred from the

feces to the urinary track when we wipe ourselves. So, if we are careful to

go from the front to the back, we are less apt to get utis. Hope this helps

your mother in the future. Jan H

On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 6:34 PM, stefanieputnam wrote:

> Pamela

> Our picnic in the mountains was fun. There was a thunderstorm up there

> and it just rained and rained on us. It was nice to be in the

> mountains and feel the cool air and the rain. In St. Utah,

> where I live it gets up to 114 in the summer, very hot. Well I am

> nervous about morphine and every drug with my mother because she seems

> to have bad reactions to most everything. Her body has always been

> sensitive to chemicals and medications and now with her liver not

> working right it is so much worse. She is getting confused again, so

> hospice took a urine test yesterday and her red blood cell count is up

> and there is still bacteria. She has had this UTI for about 4 weeks

> now. I do not understand why antibiotics are not helping it clear up.

> She started a different antibiotic today. I just don't understand why

> she gets so confused. She has 4 doses of lactulose every day. Its like

> her personality changes every day. Right now she is frustrated and

> rambling on about things and most of the time we don't understand what

> she is talking about. I'm sorry that I am rambling on, I just feel so

> helpless. I want her better and I know it is not going to happen. It

> is hard to accept.

> Thanks for listening

> Stefanie

>

> > > > > >

> > > > > > Diane

> > > > > > Wow it has been a hard two weeks. My mom had

> Encephalopathy so so

> > > > > bad......... .I left her in the ER to call my husband and when I

> > came

> > > > > back in the ER I found her walking around half naked and

> > dragging her

> > > > > torn up clothes bag around on her foot........ ..They would not

> > admit

> > > > > her to the hospital. Well I ended up calling the rehabilitation

> > > > > center.....She was there for about 5 days. She is now back

> at home

> > > > > and on hospice. The hospice people are so helpful, I love

> > > > > them........ ..

> > > > >

> > > >

August 17, 2008

Jan

Thanks for the information.

We bought my mom some wipes to use when she uses the bathroom. We keep

telling her to wipe properly, but I just can't figure it out. I think

she feels like she is going to the bathroom all day, which she usually

is because of the lactulose and the water pills and she just gets

lazy. I can't seem to get her to take a shower every other day either.

Well I have been doing research on the internet and I read that

Cranberry pills were good for UTI's. I think I will get some tomorrow.

Those UTI's can cause a lot of confusion for people. I hope we can

clear it up soon seeing that she is getting more confused by the hour.

Stefanie

> > > > > > >

> > > > > > > Diane

> > > > > > > Wow it has been a hard two weeks. My mom had

> > Encephalopathy so so

> > > > > > bad......... .I left her in the ER to call my husband and

when I

> > > came

> > > > > > back in the ER I found her walking around half naked and

> > > dragging her

> > > > > > torn up clothes bag around on her foot........ ..They

would not

> > > admit

> > > > > > her to the hospital. Well I ended up calling the

rehabilitation

> > > > > > center.....She was there for about 5 days. She is now back

> > at home

> > > > > > and on hospice. The hospice people are so helpful, I love

> > > > > > them........ ..

> > > > > >

> > > > >

August 18, 2008

Stefanie,

No I don't yet have my husband enrolled in a hospice program. We

have looked at some and have decided it will be between 2 when the

time comes. At first, he didn't want to discuss it, but now he at

least will discuss it and participate in fact-finding efforts so we

can choose the right one. I am sure your hospice will come and sit

with your Mom while you run errands. As I understand it, that is one

of the services they offer.

It helps so much to laugh and find humor in our most dire

circumstances. As I've always heard, laughter really is the best

medicine! My Mom had Alzheimer's and it relieved the tension so much

to just be able to laugh about some of the absurd things she did and

said. She was always the first to laugh when she was still coherent

enough to recognize her " moments " . It made it so much easier for us

because she led the way.

You're right, your Mom is an extraordinary woman and we know that she

raised at least one extraordinary daughter in you!!! You will never

regret the sacrifices you are making now. Not only will they comfort

you in the days to come, but they are teaching your daughter to be

the same kind of warm and loving person you are. There's no way to

measure the value of that. Also, no matter how far away your Mom

seems, she may know more than you realize and it comforts her to know

she is safe with you.

Have a good week. I sure hope the cranberry tablets work for the

UTIs. My Mom had UTIs often in the earlier years of my life. She

was told by a Urologist that drinking cranberry juice would cure

them. From that day forward, she drank 8 ozs. of cranberry juice

every morning for breakfast. Never had another UTI that I can

remember. Hope it works that well for your Mom and so sorry I didn't

remember that earlier! Didn't even THINK about it until you

mentioned the cranberry pills. I'm gettin OLD!!!

Love and hugs..........

Diane C. from TN

>

> Diane

> I was wondering if you have hospice care for your husband..........

August 19, 2008

I take lasix and potassium for heart problems. They are prescribed together

because lasix drains potassium out of the body. Low potassium does cause

muscle cramps. If my muscles start cramping, especailly in my feet, I know

I have not taken my potassium as I should have. Jan H

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 6:18 PM, Chief Little Eagle <

surfer_beachbum18@...> wrote:

> Is she taking Potassium and Lasix? This may just be me but if I don't

> balance the Potassium with the Lasix I'll go to curling up. My hoofs curled

> up on me one night like that witch's feet on the Wizard of Oz when the

> house fell on her. I am not kidding, those cramps hurt. You can mash and

> stretch all you want but a soon as you turn loose they'll roll right back

> up. It's almost like one of those birthday party blower things that honk and

> unroll when you blow in them then curl right back up.

>

> I can sympathize with her.

>

> Mention it to her Dr. Those cramps hurt and you can't sleep through them.

>

> I wish her and you my best.

>

> From: stefanieputnam <stefanieputnam@...<stefanieputnam%40yahoo.com>

> >

> Subject: Re: liver Cirrhosis

> To:

livercirrhosissupport <livercirrhosissupport%40yahoogroups.com>

> Date: Monday, August 18, 2008, 8:29 PM

>

> Bob

> My mom has done so many weird things since her liver started getting

> bad. She also hides things. Once she hid her used depends in the

> closet, we never found them until we cleaned out her room when she

> went to the hospital. For some reason she likes to find the baby or

> feminine powder and put it everywhere. It gets very messy at our house

> when she starts to rummage through things. Today hospice came and gave

> her a shot of Geodone to calm her down. She slept for about an hour

> and started getting cramps in her legs and toes. She gets charlie

> horse all the time. She can't seem to go back to sleep, she says her

> mind is just racing. When she tries to talk she slurs her speech and

> can't get her words out. Did Ardis get UTI's all the time? If she did,

> did she get really confused?

> Stefanie

>

> > > >

> > > > Diane

> > > > Our day in the mountains yesterday was refreshing. It stormed

> and

> > > > rained on us while we were there. I have always loved the rain.

> My

> > > mom

> > > > is now back to being confused.... .........

> > >

> >

August 19, 2008

Bobby

My mom has been having these weird episodes since 2003. She has had

them about once a year. We would take her to the emergency room and

they would end up putting her in the Psych Unit and would say it was

something psychological. She has had fought with depression after her

and my dad got divorced but nothing else. When my dad died in 2003 the

doctors put her on way too many anti-depressants (10 at a time). My

sisters and I would take her off them and than the doc's would put her

back on them. It was a long struggle. Well through the years since

2003 she has been really tired, her memory is going, at one time she

lost a lot of weight. The doctors did not know what was wrong with her

so they kept saying it was a psych problem. When she has her episodes

she gets real confused, hallucinates, talks about the past, gets

angry, yells hysterically, Hides things and often runs around butt

naked. Some of the doctors say she has Bipolar. I have never believed

that diagnoses. Her psychologist of 6 years has never diagnosed her

with it either. Its just general docs that say she has it. We didn't

find out about her liver until Feb 2008 after they did a biopsy. 2

years ago when they took her scarred gal bladder out the surgeon said

that her liver was also severely scarred as well. He documented it,

but never told my mother or us. I believe her liver has been going bad

for a long time, seeing that she is in end stage Cirrhosis. Well we

keep having issues with the docs trying to say that when she has these

episodes of confusion that it is Bipolar. I just don't understand.

Ardis seems to have had some of the same confusion my mother gets. She

does not get the hand flapping so her gastro doc. believes that it

might not be encephalopathy. What do I do, I feel so stress out about

it. Her confusion mostly comes when she has a UTI or her levels are

off. So what the docs are saying is that when she gets a UTI she has

bipolar. It does not make any sense to me at all.

Yesterday hospice gave me some haldol cream for her arms to calm her

down a little. I hope it works. Right now she is pulling her old

journals apart and making a big mess. I wish her UTI would go away and

stay away.

Stefanie

livercirrhosissupport , Bob Aragon

wrote:

>

> Stefanie, Ardis did get them. All the time, and when she did, she

was a completely different person. Reading your posts brings back a

lot of memories. Ardis started having encephalopathy a good two years

before any of us involved ever googled the term, or heard it from a

health care professional. I was not allowed into her apartment all of

a sudden, because she said that she had not been able to " clean house

for a while " . When I finally talked her into letting me come over and

clean up, because by now she was way way too sick to do any kind of

deep cleaning, I was shocked. The task took me a week of coming over

every night after work, and staying till 10 or 11 at night. She had

used the oven for storage, and then accidentally started it up, and

had a big giant melted mess in there. Her back room never did get

picked up, and I was kind of thankful that she was not able to save

much of that stiff, because I was pooped and didn't have the energy to

move all

> of it, much less the space to store it. This was a clean freak

woman, the cleanest person I had ever met, and she had changed 100%. I

did not know what to think. I found onions that had become mummified.

There was what looked like bags upon bags upon bags of onions, but if

you squeezed them, they had turned to dust. This was in 05, before

she came to live with us. Back then, I only ever picked her up from

the hospital when ever she would get discharged, but she didn't tell

me too much then, later I was her medical proxy, after she signed an

advanced directive giving me power of attorney, then I found out that

UTI's were playing a major role in her mental status changes. She died

with a UTI as far as I know. They had given her cipro, and I was

always giving her cranberry juice, and the story I wrote outlines in

detail how I had always tried to keep her as clean as possible, and as

Penny mentions, front to back was the wiping rule, when she was on the

> potty, I was meticulous about that. I felt like it was a giant

responsibility to have, but I was glad to have the job. I did raise

hell though, when I ever found her poopy a couple of times in the

nursing home, and lectured them on the fact that we were fighting a

chronic UTI, could they please try harder to make sure my loved one

was cleaned up good. I ended up filing a complaint with the Colorado

heath department, and got some people fired. I sure do miss her. I do

wish you the very best, Stefanie. Love, Bobby

>

> Re: liver Cirrhosis