On Sunday's we usually go to my 87 year old Father N Law's house to watch Packer football and spend some time with him.
Then we take him grocery shopping after the game. Yesterday while in the car, my brother N law calls to tell us that Jim's sister walked into the ER yesterday morning. She was feeling like crap for a couple of days and it was getting worse.
They took one look at her and knew she was in trouble. She suffers from chronic pain and takes alot of pain medication. We have been after her years because she takes too much and does not follow doctors orders.
Well, they quickly did some tests and determined she was in complete liver failure. When they did the toxicology tests, they determined she had massive amounts of acetaminophen in her system. To the point where they thought she tried to commit suicide.
She walked in at 11am, by 6:00pm she was no longer coherent and at 9pm last night they put her on life support. She is also a type 1 diabetic and was dealing with ketoacidosis, brain swelling and her kidneys had 0 output so they put her on dialysis. She was dark yellow and her face and body were swollen to the point where neither my husband and I did not recognize her. We only knew it was her because her husband was in the room. It was very scary and sad.
They gave her a 10% chance of making it through the night but said if she did, they would put her through the process to get a liver transplant. So today, they have a team of doctors assessing her to determine whether or not she will qualify.
We are currently taking it hour by hour at this point in time. I have to say I prayed last night as hard as one could not only for her but Dad, Brother and husband. All of them are in shock that taking too much acetaminophen can do this.
I do not know if they will approve her for a new liver or not or if her body could even survive the surgery at this point. Having chronic pain myself, I get why she took so much. You will do anything to get out of pain. I learned my lesson when i was told all the medications i was taking took a toll on my kidneys and ended up with stage 3 kidney disease. I have learned to deal with my pain in other ways, some days it works, some days not so much.
I read so much about people in chronic pain and see so much on forums regarding people taking more pain medication than they should.
A tylenol overdose can happen to anyone and i am here to tell you it is a horrible thing to have your liver failure. A team of doctors and administrators literally decide your fate. The decision is not as simple as "yes, i will do a transplant" - someone decides for you. We are praying that she gets through this and if she does, she will be able to follow the very strict instructions of living life after liver transplant. Following instructions on medications.
On Sunday's we usually go to my 87 year old Father N Law's house to watch Packer football and spend some time with him.
Then we take him grocery shopping after the game. Yesterday while in the car, my brother N law calls to tell us that Jim's sister walked into the ER yesterday morning. She was feeling like crap for a couple of days and it was getting worse.
They took one look at her and knew she was in trouble. She suffers from chronic pain and takes alot of pain medication. We have been after her years because she takes too much and does not follow doctors orders.
Well, they quickly did some tests and determined she was in complete liver failure. When they did the toxicology tests, they determined she had massive amounts of acetaminophen in her system. To the point where they thought she tried to commit suicide.
She walked in at 11am, by 6:00pm she was no longer coherent and at 9pm last night they put her on life support. She is also a type 1 diabetic and was dealing with ketoacidosis, brain swelling and her kidneys had 0 output so they put her on dialysis. She was dark yellow and her face and body were swollen to the point where neither my husband and I did not recognize her. We only knew it was her because her husband was in the room. It was very scary and sad.
They gave her a 10% chance of making it through the night but said if she did, they would put her through the process to get a liver transplant. So today, they have a team of doctors assessing her to determine whether or not she will qualify.
We are currently taking it hour by hour at this point in time. I have to say I prayed last night as hard as one could not only for her but Dad, Brother and husband. All of them are in shock that taking too much acetaminophen can do this.
I do not know if they will approve her for a new liver or not or if her body could even survive the surgery at this point. Having chronic pain myself, I get why she took so much. You will do anything to get out of pain. I learned my lesson when i was told all the medications i was taking took a toll on my kidneys and ended up with stage 3 kidney disease. I have learned to deal with my pain in other ways, some days it works, some days not so much.
I read so much about people in chronic pain and see so much on forums regarding people taking more pain medication than they should.
A tylenol overdose can happen to anyone and i am here to tell you it is a horrible thing to have your liver failure. A team of doctors and administrators literally decide your fate. The decision is not as simple as "yes, i will do a transplant" - someone decides for you. We are praying that she gets through this and if she does, she will be able to follow the very strict instructions of living life after liver transplant. Following instructions on medications.