My father

Hi Lisa,

I know what you mean about your head spinning with questions, I think we have all went through that stage! I can’t help you I’m afraid with most of your questions as my dad never had a resection.

Dad did have his team of doctors and specialist nurses that took care of him. His specialist who diagnosed his CC and carried out his PDT. This was what i would call dads head doctor as it were and he was ultimately responsible for dads overall treatment. It was he that decided when dad should look into chemo so sent heim to the onc, who decided dad was not suitable. Then there was the local gp who dealt with the day to day symptoms etc. And there was the specialist nurse who would visit dad at home, she was a Macmillan cancer nurse and she was great for liasing with all the other docs etc and sorting stuff out for dad. Then when dad went to day care, he had the gp’s and nurses at the centre who again, would help with the day to day symptoms. And they would all be in contact with each other but ultimately, it was the specialist who decided on treatment and stuff.

My best wishes to you and your dad.

Gavin

Hi MsHopeful:
My hubby Tom had a successful resection in June 2008 (with a tumor reoccurance in Nov 2009 that he is currently fighting with radiation).
-Distended abdomen – Tom did not experience that
-Solid foods – generally are reintroduced when they start hearing bowel sounds. When you are put to sleep for a surgery, everything goes to sleep including your stomach/intestines. They can’t give you solid foods until the ‘internal’ plumbing comes awake and they listen to your stomach and when they hear growling and you start passing gas, etc, then they will reintroduce solid foods.
-No Gas or BM- Liquids are ok as long as the patient can tolerate it. Tom did not eat anything solid for about the first week after his resection – he had only a liquid diet. Water, ice chips, broth, jello.
-Tom had a whole slew of doctors. The oncology team, the surgery team, the infectious disease team, the interventional radiology team. Talk about confusing! Each time a ‘team’ of doctors came in, things were changed – my thought was that there were too many chiefs and not enough indians. His surgeon was the main go to person. Since she did the surgery, she had the final say and she was my go to person when I really needed something or had questions that the other teams of doctors could not answer.
-If there is a bowel obstruction then possible that they could operate again to clear that up. Are you just asking this as a precaution or have they said that he has a bowel obstruction?
-Bilirubin level – Tom’s bilirubin level was always ‘normal’ pre surgery and post surgery. His bilirubin level never wavered until Nov 09 and that is how we knew that something was wrong. Turns out he had a re-occurance of a new liver tumor that is blocking the flow of the bile into the intestines.

You need to ask all these questions of your fathers ‘team’ of doctors, ask them to every medical professional that you see come into his room. The more questions you ask the better informed you will be. Ask about the possibilty of stenting the liver bile duct if the bilirubin level continues to rise. It could be that with them going in there to attempt a resection that it ‘stirred’ thing up.

Best of luck to you. Prayers for your day coming from Wisconsin.

Go with God and Keep KICKIN’ that cancer.

Margaret

Hi Lisa,

I can’t help you with your search for info for doctors in California, as I live in Scotland. But I am glad that you have joined us as you will get a ton of support and a lot of help from members here. Yes this is as you say a scary time in our lives. But i know how much it helped me to be able to come here and the help and support I got from members here was of great help to me and my family. I am sure that you will experience the same.

My best wishes to you and your dad.

Gavin