My dad is experiencing confusion yet again this morning. They are running more tests to figure out what might be happening this time. I believe they are doing a CT of his head at some point and an ultrasound of his stomach to check for a clot. They also are draining fluid from his lungs again....this concerns us because last time they did this he had serious problems at Baptist. His ammonia levels were fine this morning, so they're not sure what has happened overnight to cause all of these symptoms to return. Please pray for us and my father during these procedures.

Amber

Mike is slowly recovering from this latest setback. I thought I would try and give everyone a brief explanation of what has been going on....at least from our understanding at the moment.

Mike developed Ascites, which is an accumulation of protein-containing fluid in the abdominal cavity. It has made Mike unable to bend his abdomen easily, when trying to get up. It rapidly spread up his sides to his armpits. They tested that fluid yesterday by doing a Diagnostic Paracentesis...which was inserting a needle into his abdomen to draw out the fluid and test it for bacteria. Mike's liver had stopped processing. Large amounts of albumin (the major protein in plasma) is usually lost from the blood into the abdominal fluid, so....Mike has been getting albumin intravenously, because his levels were low. Also, his potassium dropped as well, and he has been receiving that as well....along with fluids because he became dehydrated again.

The main issue we had was that Mike developed Hepatic Encephalopathy, which is confusion caused by deterioration of brain function that occurred because toxic substances normally removed by the liver, built up in Mike's blood and reached his brain. One of these substances was ammonia. The doctors have been successful in removing the ammonia.

Mike had become confused, drowsy, and disoriented rapidly last Friday-Sunday when we finally overrode his opinion to go to the emergency room. He appeared as if he had experienced a stroke. He began receiving Lactulose, to help speed up the process of eliminating these toxins from his body.

We met with Dr. Sneed last night briefly about the situation, but we haven't determined a plan of action yet, on how to proceed from here. Their priority has been to bring back up Mike's blood pressure, to remove toxins to help him become more lucid, and to improve his liver function. But Mike is far from being in the clear from all of this and we hope to learn more this morning about the plan from here.

This is just a brief overview......of what we have been dealing with. Please continue to pray for Mike's protection and for strength for our family., as we're all very exhausted mentally and physically.

Mike is in room 442 (here in town) if you would like to visit him, or send him a card. It's unclear if he'll be transferred on to LR. I will update more as we learn things.