My dad's second surgery is this month. No set date yet but still it's soon. Today he called and told me that he was looking yellow again and has an appointment with Angio (sp?) tomorrow to see if something is up with one of his tubes. He didn't want me to get scared should he have to stay in the hospital tomorrow for observations.

So what am I doing around this time? Wedding stuff and trying not to think about how my dad could be too sick, or not even here come August, but lets think positively shall we?

So yesterday we had our Engagement Pictures, which was awesome! I love our photographer. I can't wait for him to take care of our memories for the big day. We went to a great alley in the city and took pictures near garbage and graffiti ! It's going to look fantastic!

This week I also have my hair/makeup trial, my food tasting and my bridal shower!!!!

So positive fun wedding things..

P.S. I hate invitations never ever do them yourself.

A week ago today I was sitting in a hospital while my dad was having 70% of his liver and gallbladder taken out.  We arrived at the hospital at 6am and made our way to "day surgery", which is laughable as we were told this surgery would take 5 to 8 hours! Mom and I yoinked a private "consultation room" that had two chairs and a small love seat and a closing door since we knew we were here for the long haul. We had packed breakfast, water, pop and I had about five books and my laptop. We were ready.

Dad was taken to change and set up in a temporary bed while we waited for everything to get started. Only one person at a time was allowed to stay with him and Mom stayed most of the time. I got him upset the first time, the aesthetician’s assistant explained the IVs he was going to put in and I didn’t want to stay around for that but it made me cry, which in turn made my dad cry, which makes me cry harder! I’m not sure about anyone else but seeing my dad cry is one of the worst things as he’s my rock. I did see him a couple times after this and held my composure and by quarter to 8 they took him away.

 

Now the waiting began.

 

We read, I played Sims, read, spider solitaire. Every two hours I’d come out of our room and call my sister (no cell phone service in the bowels of the hospital) and text work and whatnot. 9:10am the surgery had started and was going well. We didn’t hear anything again until 3 when we had to prompt for info, apparently the head surgery nurse came looking for us but we weren’t there (read that : they didn’t check the room even though we told them we were in one).  We were told that his surgery was taking longer then normal and wouldn’t be done at 3:30pm but maybe around 6.

 

6 came and went.

 

We asked again, by this time we had to hunt someone down as day surgery was closed so I broke into post op.

 

Surgery was still going and would be another 2 to 3 hours. They knew we were there and would come and get us when he was done.

 

By 8:30pm we could hardly sit. I was constantly trying not to cry as something wasn’t right it was almost 12 hours!  Matt arrived around 9 thankfully and got us tea and hot chocolate. Still we waited – while I spilled very hot hot chocolate on my neck.

 

10:30pm they came to get us saying he was being moved directly to ICU (which was always the plan) and they might have forgotten about us!  They moved us to the ICU waiting room.

 

11pm The Surgeon (oh yes he gets caps) came to talk to us…

 

First that they had found something on his liver, and worried that the cancer had metastasized had it analyzed (by sending a frozen sample which can be analyzed right away…) it came back as negative (thank gods) and he made them do a second opinion, again negative. They are still sending it off for the long test but the chances are slim that it’s positive. So they went ahead with the operation.

 

The cancer was more advanced then they thought and had wrapped around a blood vessel. The Surgeon did say that normally he wouldn’t have been a surgery candidate if it was known prior to surgery. However The Surgeon is fantastic (despite his bedside manner) and continued. They had to split vessels and put them back together again which he didn’t like because it causes more area for blood clots but he couldn’t save what he wanted to because of the wrapping. Also my dad had swelling because of infections (he had sepsis at one point) which caused the removal of the liver to be difficult, as it didn’t just come off a vessel easily. In fact a blood vessel (portal vein?) tore and my dad started to lose a lot of blood, 6 units in fact! He went into crisis (but not coding) which in turn made his body swell even more.

 

The Surgeon brought in a Vascular Surgeon to help save my dad and both of them along with The Surgeon’s resident saved my dad. I love them all; they can now do no wrong, regardless of bedside manner.

 

 So the good news is they got all of the cancer (I love The Surgeon have I said that yet?) but the bad news is they didn’t do the resection (which reattaches the liver, bile duct and intestines) so he still has bags to help drain bile. A second surgery will happen in about two months.

 

Dad is now out of ICU and in a surgical observation unit. He’s doing well, walking and off epidural. Hopefully he’ll get his semi private room soon which means he’s even more on the road to recovery (right now there are 4 to a room and they get extra nurse care)

 

I’ve been staying at my parents house this past week, my work being super awesome allowing me to work from home and visit the hospital Mon-Wed. I’m now back at work yesterday and today since I can call him whenever I want now that he’s no longer ICU.

 

Things are looking up but it has been a hell of a ride and there still more road to go down but for now we are taking each day as we can.

A week ago today I was sitting in a hosiptal while my dad was having 70% of his liver and gallbladder taken out.  We arrived at the hospital at 6am and made our way to "day surgery", which is laughable as we were told this surgery would take 5 to 8 hours! Mom and I yoinked a private "consultation room" that had two chairs and a small love seat and a closing door since we knew we were here for the long haul. We had packed breakfast, water, pop and I had about five books and my laptop. We were ready.

Dad was taken to change and set up in a temporary bed while we waited for everything to get started. Only one person at a time was allowed to stay with him and Mom stayed most of the time. I got him upset the first time, the anesthetitian's