After being gone for the first night in over a week, I walked into Stephen's room today after lunch and saw that he was markedly more swollen than when I left him yesterday afternoon. His ankles and feet are so big, it looks like they're about to burst. His stomach is bigger too, and when you look at him from the back you can see that his sides are bulging out more.
He's awfully tired; said he didn't sleep well last night. Still low urine output and not eating, still on TPN. His vitals haven't changed much, except bp is lower than it's been during his time here.
Everyone is telling me that until the liver works better, the swelling won't go down. I asked about a drain being placed, but the doctor's comments and comments here have led me to believe that there is too much of a risk for infection to go this route. I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that he could die like this, lying here in the bed in pain from being so bloated. I always felt like if the time came, we could at least control his pain so he'd be comfortable. They want him to eat, but every time he tries, he feels sick, so he doesn't try. They want him to drink Ensure and Enliven, but even that is too much. The dilaudid helps his stomach cramping; the only issue is really now the fluid retention and escalating swelling.
If the liver has to work better before the swelling has a chance of going down, how can we get the liver to start working better? I guess that's the million-dollar question.