At the moment, my father is not in the hospital and not looking like he has to head for the emergency room soon. I’m not sure how to handle that after the events of last month. Currently, all we can do is try to get him stronger and see what happens.
Wednesday we had a round of appointments to go to as follow ups to the cancer treatment and the surgery. The first looks good so far and it will be several months until his next round of testing. It was the meeting with the surgeon that was most interesting.
More details on the tear in the stomach revealed it wasn’t near the gastric outlet, but at the bottom of the organ. The attempt to dilate the outlet really can’t be evaluated as a success or failure at this point due to the tear and the need to keep the stomach from distending.
There are conflicting beliefs between doctors over whether his lack of motility is due to obstruction or paralysis induced by chemotherapy side effects. Further surgery is not completely out of the question, but multiple things have to happen before that could be considered.
First, his stomach would have to start showing signs of moving things again. Gradual build up of capping off his gastric tube for periods of time to see what happens will be allowable after the healing period is up, which would be a week or so from now. If there is some success there, another barium study would be in order.
Second, Dad would have to get a lot stronger. That’s going to take some months, probably well into next year at the rate he’s going. Restructuring of the stomach is very invasive surgery that would kill him right now.
Third, there is a remote chance motility will return on its own to some degree. If it is nerve damage, that’s theoretically possible if highly improbable. If it is a physical obstruction, there is no way it will.
So we are waiting for anything or nothing to happen with the stomach. It will be a long wait and it is best that we expect things to never improve.
2 comments:
Ah Patrick! What a tough couple of years it has been for your father. The car accident and now cancer treatment are a LOT to handle. I'm so glad that you are able to be there for him. The odd thing about my own illness. M.E., which makes working impossible, has allowed me to pitch in during my parents' health challenges. My illness has progressed to severe now so that's a thing of the past but I'm grateful for the support I was able to give.
I have minor motility issues and have found great support on the TEAM Inspire website. Beware it can get graphic but it sure is informative.
There are a few drugs and more supplements that have nerve regen properties.
Prayers for you both
Char
Chardale Irvine blogs about RV life, ME., Equal Parenting & medical/legal corruption www.chardalescuriousjourney.blogspot.com
Hey, Char!
I can relate to the oddness of being ill enough to be there all the time for care giving. Odd might not even be a strong enough word for it, but it is what it is.
Once Dad has arrested his weight loss and starts getting stronger, I'm going to be looking into anything and everything that might help. So much of this is like playing whack-a-mole.
Appreciate the thoughts and prayers!
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