Surgery itself went great, recovery not so much. First of all morphine + my dad = on mean sob. lol No easier, nicer way to put it. He also does not remember 15 of the 18 or so days he was in the hospital and we attribute that to the morphine. I am kind of glad he doesn't because I was not a very nice daughter to him while he was in there. But it was all for his cause and getting out of the hospital.
On the 3rd or so day dad started to act really funny. They called a rapid response team on him twice. Now coming from a medical background... Rapid response is not a good thing. At first we thought it was his heart. Then come to find out he had thrown a blood clot in his lung. Even scarier.... My aunt and uncle had just left to head for home. Thank god for them as they turned around and came back. After kicking my mom out of the room because dad was not being very nice at all to her I inserted my foot in his ass and made him do what the nurse needed. Once done I had to leave the room and walk to the waiting room to call my husband.... In tears..
To the ICU it was. When in the ICU we got the news that would turn things around.... No Cancer! None.... It was a cystic fibrotic mass. Once we had that news it was on to heal and get home.
After 18 days in the hospital we finally got to leave, but bringing his drains still intact home with us. We also had to give shots to put the pancreas asleep to heal. Ok no biggie we got this..... Then the infection came in the incision. A frantic phone call While dropping of Bailey at school and then a rush to Springfield to the dr to have the wound packed. Months and Months of antibiotics and time healing.
Pounds and pounds lost. My once 160 pound dad was no more than skin and bones. Test and test. I swear since that surgery they have ran every test except a pregnancy test.
Another stent in the hospital due to the fact of no weight gain and food tasting like garbage. He started to eat, things tasted great. Attributed to lack of zinc...... Then back to tasting like garbage. Off and on he eats, then he doesn't. Back and forth. To a new dr in St Louis. More test. More procedures. Nothing no answers. Until the stool test came back and it said low on pancreatic enzymes....... Something we had been begging for since JUNE!!!!!!!!!!! Me and mom... We had said it since June... But every dr, no he does not need those........ Nobody would even just humor us and run the correct test...... We wonder if we would have been given enzymes would we have been where we are today.
So we started the enzymes almost 2 months ago and honestly we are not seeing a big improvement. He has what we believe to be an umbilical hernia now. It is causing pain on top of everything else we are having to deal with. The dr brought up surgery but dad barely weights 100 pounds..... He and I prefer to have some meat on his bones before another surgery.
He still has things he will eat like a pig and things he can not tolerate the taste of. No rhyme nor reason to it. It is frustrating. Frustrating watching my dad be frustrated. Frustrated the drs really can not give us an answer. Just plain frustrating. He has no energy.. He can not sleep. HE is in pain. And there is nothing.. Not a damn thing I can do to fix it. All I can do is research and ask people who have walked in these shoes....
So if you have been here before and have any suggestions, input, advice. I am all ears... Trust me I am willing to try anything to help him...
