My DH is all over the place at the moment and I am looking for some kind of an approxiamate clinical assessment so I can help support him.... I've done a quick name change as my DH is intensely private person - he'd be uncomfortable with my MN friends in RL if he knew they knew about some of the following:
My MIL is an alcoholic who has gone downhill since my FIL passed away 7 years ago. She has been in hospital since she had a bad fall nearly 3 weeks ago, and is going downhill. A quick summary: Her liver is failing, it is suspected that her kidney is beginning to fail too. she had a blood transfusion on Thursday but that didn't do her any good and now she has an enlarged spleen which I think the registrar explained as meaning that her blood isn't getting properly processed (or that she wouldn't benefit form any more transplants, not clear on his message here, but knew it wasn't a good sign). she has been on a drip (she has refused all food since going into hospital and we suspect she probably didn't eat for some time prior to admittance) and she has also been getting antibiotics intraveneously. Today they have said that all her normal veins have collapsed and any more treatment will require them to put in a central vein somthing or other which I understand means putting in a drip in a vein close to her heart. she has been vomitting blood since Saturday and her BP is 40/50. She also has brain damage (but apparantly more to do with long-term alcohol than the accident she had) and is down to 42KG. She has a chest infection which is being kept at bay by the antibiotics. Her skin is breaking open all over the place so she is on an air mattress now. She is in her mid-sixties but has for years been in very poor health. Her current 'will to live' is pretty low. I would say that she is pretty determined this time to not recover (we have had a few hospital episodes before - never on this scale medically of course - but she always rallied round; this time we think she has made her mind up to go).
Whilst we are told what is happening to her from day to day, my DH can't seem to get any kind of prognosis with regard to what happens next; we have no idea if she has just a couple of days to live or if she might pull back and improve substantially. If she is dying (which we think is the case), could it take weeks? Yesterday for example she 'came back' a bit mentally (ie she could talk and have something approximating a conversation, although her short term memory is all over the place), and DH thought she was rallying; today he's been called back to discuss this central vein thing. I think the registrar was intimating that putting in this vein was a 'decision' that DH needed to take. He had flown back from Scotland (where she is) to London on the first flight this morning, and now he is driving straight back up to get to the hospital for this evening.
Does anyone have an idea of how this is likely to pan out? DH doesn't know if it is night or day and has been back up and down like a yo-yo. I don't know whether to tell him to stay there or not, or whether I should get the kids together and drive up there myself, or whether I should gear us all up for a bit of upheaval that might last months. My DH's fear today is that this vein thing may be a life/death decision that he needs to take (But he just doesn't know: for all we know the vein thing might not be important at all).
If anyone has any advice on what is likely to happen we would be really grateful; DH is on the road for the next 6 hours so I can relay news over to him. If I need to get my bags packed as well then the sooner the better and I'd rather know ASAP if that is the case. If he arrives late tonight he may not see the consultant until tomorrow. Any info he has in advance would be a great benefit (even if the news isn't good)..