I am not in the mood to do this post, but I feel I owe it to my faithful readers. Cliff did not come home today. The doctor wanted to make sure there was no bile escaping into Cliff's belly, so they did another scan. Guess what?
The first thing I said was, "So maybe that's why he feels so awful and has no appetite..."
Doctor said, "Ma'am, he isn't going to have an appetite six weeks from now. We had to take his gall bladder out a piece at a time because it was bonded to his liver. If it had been any longer before he had surgery, he would be dead."
Oh.
So yes, bile fluid is leaking either from where they put the T-tube or else from some German-named, useless ducts on the bottom of the liver. Tomorrow some other kind of specialist (gastro-something) will put a stint in the duct, if the problem is at the T-tube, and they will remove the T-tube. If that isn't where the bile is coming from, he will get a stint in a different spot and keep the tube.
I am not going into the details, but there are a lot of "ifs" to this procedure.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Cliff comes home today
He still feels lousy, and has to force himself to eat even the tiniest bit of food, but they've done all they can for him in the hospital. I suspect just being home will make him feel better.
He will have two drainage tubes still in place. He will be removing the little containers from each tube and measuring the fluid contained in them, then disposing of the fluid. The tube that goes to a bile duct is the tricky one, because he has to be very careful that nothing pulls or tugs on it: It HAS to stay in place, and he will be left in place for months. Yes, months. A nurse is going to instruct us on the care of the tubes before we leave this morning.
Can you read my apprehension here? Right now, Cliff doesn't feel like doing anything, but when he feels better, I don't know how well he will follow doctor's orders about physical activity. I think we may turn the cows in on the hay crop, then sell the bull (we were going to sell him anyhow) and calves this fall and just buy hay for whatever animals we keep. I know Cliff isn't going to be lifting any small square bales, and because the big baler is so junky, nobody but him can operate it: He has to get off the tractor for almost every bale and mess with the innards of the thing, which would be awfully risky as far as keeping the tube where it belongs.
According to THIS ARTICLE, he isn't supposed to lift over ten pounds during this time. I don't know how well he will follow this rule. He sure didn't do too well with doctor's instructions on lifting after his open heart surgery, although no harm came from his disobedience at that time. If he does too much and the T-tube is pulled from the bile duct, a whole different set of doctors would have to go through another procedure that places a stent in the duct. That is not a desirable alternative, from what I've gathered on the Internet.
So. That's the story from where I sit this morning.
He will have two drainage tubes still in place. He will be removing the little containers from each tube and measuring the fluid contained in them, then disposing of the fluid. The tube that goes to a bile duct is the tricky one, because he has to be very careful that nothing pulls or tugs on it: It HAS to stay in place, and he will be left in place for months. Yes, months. A nurse is going to instruct us on the care of the tubes before we leave this morning.
Can you read my apprehension here? Right now, Cliff doesn't feel like doing anything, but when he feels better, I don't know how well he will follow doctor's orders about physical activity. I think we may turn the cows in on the hay crop, then sell the bull (we were going to sell him anyhow) and calves this fall and just buy hay for whatever animals we keep. I know Cliff isn't going to be lifting any small square bales, and because the big baler is so junky, nobody but him can operate it: He has to get off the tractor for almost every bale and mess with the innards of the thing, which would be awfully risky as far as keeping the tube where it belongs.
According to THIS ARTICLE, he isn't supposed to lift over ten pounds during this time. I don't know how well he will follow this rule. He sure didn't do too well with doctor's instructions on lifting after his open heart surgery, although no harm came from his disobedience at that time. If he does too much and the T-tube is pulled from the bile duct, a whole different set of doctors would have to go through another procedure that places a stent in the duct. That is not a desirable alternative, from what I've gathered on the Internet.
So. That's the story from where I sit this morning.
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