Compassionate and caring people

I’ve got a lot to be thankful for. I have two of the sweetest girlfriends. They know how busy I have been lately, they kindly cooked us a delicious dinner and baked us a friendship bread loaf. I love them to pieces Cindy and Angela, you girls are the best. We really enjoyed your kindness, and greatly appreciated it.



It’s been another chaotic week around our home as our days have been spent at the rehab center, the hospital and the doctor’s office while trying to maintain some sense of normalcy around our home.

My sweet husband, Eric was feeling extremely weak from the Hepatic Encephalopathy, and because he was lightheaded, he took a nosedive and fell hard onto the hardwood floor causing him to injure his ribs, knee, and right side. Thankfully no ribs were broken, but were bruised and his pulled muscle is very painful. He isn’t one to complain often. But I can clearly see he’s hurting from the look on his face.

He’s struggling to function on minimal sleep. Last night was no exception as he had another sleepless night. I try to stay awake with him whenever possible. There are some nights when we’re both up all night long.

It’s obvious the cirrhosis is progressing, and is taking its toll on his body and his doctor has recommended he purchase a walking cane to assist him. He also has advised against him driving for the time being until his ammonia levels are stabilized into a more normal range. Recently his blood test showed these levels were five times higher than they should normally be, thus causing the sleep deprivation, and light headiness.

I am praying that he will soon get a liver transplant and will feel like his old self again. It’s painful to watch the one you love suffer. The emotions we deal with are all over the place. One doctor has suggested we write about our feeling about his disease, and thought that blogging would be a good release for us. So we're going to try to take his advice and let our blogs be an emotional outlet for us.

Eric's blog can be found at...

http://www.onshiftingsands.blogspot.com/

We really like his liver specialist he is such a caring physician. He genuinely cares for his patients. Each month when see him, after he has completed his physical exam on Eric, he invites into his office. There he usually spends about an hour with us discussing Eric’s disease and what we can expect, etc. Most doctors I have seen haven't typically spend this much time with their patients.