Present Issues

Cecil has been "toxic" for a couple of days now. He has encephalopathy caused from his liver disease. His liver cannot process much of anything and toxins build up and go through his blood stream to his brain causing anything from mild confusion to complete confusion and sometimes comas. Cecil has had this problem for many years now but it has been getting worse each year as his liver continues to shut down. The pills Cecil takes go through his liver, making the situation very dicey. He needs the pills to survive, but the pills are causing damage as well. This is the main reason why I can't work a full time job. We never know when Cecil will go "toxic". Sometimes he goes two months between episodes and other times he goes "toxic" every other week with major confusion. I can't leave him by himself when he is in that state as he could hurt himself or slip into a coma. When he does go toxic, I have to watch him very carefully to make sure he is okay or if he needs to go in to the hospital. A few years back Cecil had several hospital stays due to the toxic problem, but lately we have managed to keep him out of the hospital. If his toxic cycles were on a schedule, I could call home care and set up regular appointments for them to watch him when I am working, but as we never know when it will happen, it's useless to try and set something like that set up as they need advance notice for care giving. Cec doesn't need to be in hospice yet, and I am so thankful and grateful that he is still home with me. We try to live as normally as possible, and enjoy our time together because we know it is short.