Hello all. I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some pointers or experience.
My dad (70) is suffering from liver failure as a consequence of stage 4 colon cancer which has metastasized to the liver. He's responded well to chemo since his diagnosis 18 months ago but started suffering liver-related complications in October (ascites, jaundice, upper gastric bleeding). One week ago today, he was told by his consultant that there's nothing more they can do for him in terms of treating the cancer, and based upon his scans and blood tests, he was given 3-6 months left to live.
Unfortunately, he's gone massively downhill in the week since. He's exhausted, sleeping a lot, his jaundice has got a lot worse, the ascites has returned, he's had diarrhea, been nauseous and vomiting, and in the last day has become confused and has been unable to eat. We initially thought he had just given up and become depressed, but his symptoms have worsened massively so there's obviously something physical - rather than purely mental - going on here. His liver is finally failing, basically.
Today, on the advice of his consultant, we took him to the emergency room. They're giving him fluids and are keeping him in hospital tonight. They did some blood tests and I'm not sure of the results other than the fact that his bilirubin levels have rocketed to 4.5mg/dl and his kidneys are also starting to fail. They also asked him whether or not he wishes to be resuscitated, should the inevitable happen at any point (he said no)
We've pretty much accepted that this is obviously not a 3-6 month prognosis at this stage but the uncertainty is really getting to me. Does anyone who's had experience in caring for someone with liver failure have any idea of how close to the end we might be? Days? Weeks? It's really hard to find any information online with regards to the final weeks/days of liver failure so I'm having trouble judging and managing my own expectations.
Just a note to say that my dad passed away 6 days after my post. He declined as expected, in hospital - sleeping more, becoming disorientated, and eventually he stopped eating/drinking, fell asleep, and passed peacefully a few days later. In retrospect, it was obvious from his symptoms that we had less than a week when he went into hospital, but it still came as quite a shock. We got a call on the Wednesday morning to say that it would be 'within a couple of days', and he passed on the Thursday afternoon.
Thank you so much for your comments. This is a hard time, but we'll get through it :)