Dad is being released from the hospital today! Hooray!
The doctors have diagnosed him with acute intermittent porphyria. According to information from Mom, porphyria is characterized by a defect in the hematin processing pathway causing an increased number of porphyrins to travel through the body, and Dad is missing the enzymes that break down porphyrins. Porphyrins effect the neurological system, and for him, specifically, the nerves in the abdomen. He has, unknowingly, has had this all his life, and it was probably triggered recently for several reasons.
Things that trigger an attack are:
- infections (Dad has had an extreme, continuous sinus infection since December)
- certain medications (doctors found that the blood medication he has been taking for 20+ years may have contributed to the severity of his reaction, specifically the flushing)
- not enough carbohydrates (glucose) in your diet
Therefore, an increased amount of glucose will help to suppress the “attack” from occurring by blocking porphyrins from coursing through the body. He will have to modify his diet to consume 400g of carbohydrates a day, which means he’ll have to eat lots of pasta, cereal, and pizza (and pizza is his favorite – poor guy!). Additionally, the doctors took him off of Zestril and he is now taking another blood pressure medication.
Over the past few days he has been on a different blood pressure medication and has had a glucose IV drip. Thankfully with these changes he hasn’t had an attack (no flushing or extreme pain) since. The doctors think that his acute stage is now over!
He’s being sent home today with Delotted (or Delautid…not sure how you spell it) to be taken orally. The doctors do not anticipate other attacks, but if he has another one, he will have to go back to the hospital to receive medicine to relieve the pain.
I’ll try to keep you guys posted if I hear of any more updates.
