My father has severe cirrhosis, now in end stage liver failure. He has been moved to hospice care and has a tube in his stomach which drains his fluid from ascites. The care givers tell me his bag fills up multiple times a day with fluid. He hasn't stood up in over a month, he cant even shift himself around in his bed, we have to help him. He is skin and bones, so so skinny and hes losing his ability to hold a conversation. The doctor told us he has a 50% of not surviving for 3 months based on his 30 MELD score. Recently he had a short spout where he could lift his legs and roll over in bed himself for 2 days, now that energy is gone and he's been back to not moving for a week. What has been your experience with a doctor's prognosis on liver failure? Mostly spot on? I wondered if his movement was the "surge before death" or "end of life rally" but that was over a week ago now. He is definitely losing weight fast, struggling to carry on a conversation, cannot move... he also tells us he sees shadows of cats and birds in his room. We think that may be a reaction to his pain medication though. Has anyone else ever heard that? How long does he have? We are 3 weeks out from the doctors prognosis now.
when you can see the downward changes from one month to the next, they know that there is only months left.
when those changes are noticeable from one week to the next, then it is only weeks remaining,
but, we you see the changes from one day to the next...the time is only days away.
Sorry for your loss. Please do not be alone in the final days...it is about the hardest most heart wrenching thing I have ever been thru...thankfully I had my Moms part time caregiver with me to help and give me emotional support.
There is no way to be certain about how many more weeks, days or hours your Dad my have. Years ago a friend had liver failure and was given 3-4 months, he died 2 weeks later.