Hepatic Encephalopathy.

Update for this week. The lactulose is helping. She still sleeps more than normal, but she's not so out of it like she was when we went to cardio last week. Echo was done, waiting on results. We still have 4 weeks before we see the liver doctor again. In the meantime we are doing an ultrasound of the liver in 2 weeks and meeting with oncology for her anemia.
She's already telling me she's tired of the meds and doctors.
I really appreciate everyone's insight. Information is comforting to me. and anything that helps my mother its great.

What do you mean, she will not qualify for Hospice? I again am not a Nurse but in my experience all the signs say this person is dying. No doctor is going to be able to change that. Hospice works on a 6 months rule but people have been on it longer. Your Mom has diabetes and heart problems too. Since she is retaining water like she is, I would say CHF and kidney problems caused by diabetes. She may not last the month.

I am not clear here as to what is happening. It honestly doesn't matter at this point what the age is of the patient; this is sounding like end of life care. Is it? Is Hospice on board?
The lactulose will cause massive diarrhea. I am certain you are warned of that.
This sounds to me, as a retired RN as impossible care to be doing in-home.

"Hepatic Encephalopathy is the loss of brain function when a damaged liver doesn't remove toxins from the blood." The lactulose is for her BMs.

I am not a Nurse but I do understand what toxins do to the body. The only thing that may save Mom is a liver transplant. Is your Moms stomach enlarged? If so, she maybe in her final stage of her disease. Not sure what a doctor can do for her at this point. You may want to consider Hospice.

So sorry.

We see the liver doctor again next month after an ultrasound and in the background we have seen all the other doctors. Since he doesn't know her like her prior doctors they always want to do their own tests.
Yea, she's young. But she looks 80, she seems to be declining to me, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get put on hospice next month. If not, I will ask about LTC, that's a great idea. My husband is great moral support but this is still taking a toll.

Your profile says your Mom is only 67 and "We just made the decision to take my mother out of her home due to her decline with cirrhosis and losing our current caregiver and the costs involved in her increased care." So she is living with you now.

You may want to talk to her doctor to see if she qualifies for LTC. This is because every state's Medicaid covers LTC, as long she qualifies both medically and financially.

Or, is she a candidate for hospice?

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this.