emstexas
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UPDATE: Three weeks after the attempted resection with my Dad, he was admitted to the hospital after experiencing hallucinations, and then soon his speech became incoherent. He had been disoriented in the mornings but then things would get better during the day, so we assumed it was lack of sleep and stress from the big surgery he had. We never really got any post-op instructions on what to look for with infection besides fever, and a nurse was coming to the house regularly to check his vitals. The doctors at the hospital believed that he was suffering from some sort of infection and eventually, they found a mass in the gallbladder area while doing a scan. They drained fluid (enough to fill a coke can) from the place where his gallbladder had been removed. They put him on a series of antibiotics, but nothing seemed to work. He passed away Saturday morning, August 28, 2010 (his surgery was on July 28th). So if anyone sees signs of disorientation, incoherent speech or hallucination after surgery, these are serious signs of possible infection that should not be ignored.
My father was just diagnosed with bile duct cancer last week. He is in stage 4 and the prognosis is not good. He served in Vietnam from 1967-1968. He was also stationed in Korea (hardship tour) for a year in 1978. I will have to ask him where he served in Vietnam when he is feeling better. He is 74 years old, so this surgery has taken it’s toll. We have been told that the cancer has enveloped the arteries that go into the liver and it is incurable at this stage.
