staktup

After a month-long battle with all sorts of serious complications from
his bile duct tumor surgery (ascites tat becaem infected, anastomosis bleeding, pancreatic juice leakage, friable tissues leading to more bleeding, eventual fluid imbalance, blood pressure drops & liver function deterioration) my father had passed away as an inpatient in the ICU. The medical staff were so impressed by my dad’s vigor and stamina, but in the end, it was all just too much for him to continue to endure. My mom, sister & I were there for the final 24 hours of his life. He confirmed that he was ready to go willingly and suffer no more. We do not blame the surical team nor the hospital staff; I believe my dad was an unlucky statistic of the 5-10% mortality risk and 15-20% complication risk pool. Were in the process of reviewing what went wrong but it will not bring him back. Contributions to this oranization were made in my father’s name.

It’s 5:05PM. My dad went in around 7:30, 1st incision around 9. Surgeon came out around 3:45PM & said the whipple is done, but the duct leading into the liver had a lot of cancerous growth. We decided to push forward and remove the affected portion of the liver. The risk of fatal complications double, but he said it’s about 5% now vs. 2.5% as before. HR, BP, vitals are solid. Will report back.

nur1954: Thanks for the suggestion.

Well, the good news is that my dad is recovering fine. He’ll have more tests done in the next 2 days (another ERCP) to see if the pancreas is involved and diagnosed as cancerous. All this means is that he’ll prob. go back under the knife within 3 months. Frustrating.

Anyway, thanks for the support everyone!

Suron told my sister & mother that the bile duct did nt have a tuor associated as previously thought, but the pancreas was so inflamed that he had to abort any thoughts of a whipple for safety’s sake. The Chief of Liver transplant surgery was consulted & agreed. So, this means that 3 days rest, then another ERCP, and then we’ll go from there.

He recommends that if today’s biopsy results are positive for cancer, we go for chemo there vs. closer to home. I don’t think this will be confortable for my dad. Thoughts? What’s the cycle generally like? Ultimately it’s my dad’s choice where to go for chemo, right?

Thank you. We just got the biopsy results, and cytology confirmed cancer cells. The plastic stent that was put in the bile duct this past weekend really helped my dad’s jaundice & bilirubin go back down.