James

Ok... so the last few days have been fun (and I'm going to wave a sarcasm flag there!). Yesterday James decided that it would be a good idea to keep everyone on their toes and start throwing up blood. He was whisked off for a gastroscopy - however his stomach wasn't empty (even though he had been fasting) and, in the words of the doctor, "the ulcer could have been hiding". He threw up more blood after the procedure.

This morning I got the following message from James "Hi. Biopsy has been cancelled cause I have ketones. And there's talk of sending me to intense care. Don't know why! I feel ok. but my ca (calcium) is low and k (potassium) and I have dka (diabetic ketoacidosis) and am dehydrated". Don't you just love his definition of ok?

So, after this there was apparently a group of about 10 people in his ward arguing over what was happening and in the end they sent him for the liver biopsy anyway. When I saw him he was attached to 3 drips - 1 x potassium, 1 x detrose and 1 x insulin. They were talking about sending him to intensive care as, after his liver biospy, he needed obs (bsl, blood pressure, temp etc) taken every 10 minutes for the first hour and then every 30 mins for the next 3 hours. They ended up having one nurse looking after only him (I think they called a nurse in specially).

By this afternoon he had no ketones left in his blood - so his dka was all gone. His potassium levels and calcium levels had gone back to normal. At the moment he only has some stuff to help his stomach in some way, but he still has two canulas in and he is in pain from them and can't get comfortable.

He thanks everyone for all their well wishes and messages of support. And he is homesick!