Dad expected to make full recovery

Posted on Monday, July 13, 2009 No Comments
Labels: Personal

I visited my Dad this weekend. He looked awful. He's on a ventilator and has all kinds of tubes everywhere.

I saw the surgeon while I was there. He said that they had to take part of his diaphragm, part of his stomach, part of his pancreas and his spleen out. The tumor was a cavernous cyst and it was tested for cancer and was benign. He said the reason the mass got so big was because the pancreatis that my dad had a couple of weeks ago blew it up. The pancreas was trying to work harder because part of it was dead. Dad will have to take more insulin to make up the difference in the future.

My dad's on a ventilator because he was in a lot of pain and he couldn't breathe because the diaphragm needs time to heal. Pain meds make it difficult to breathe and he couldn't have the pain meds and breathe properly. He's supposed to be taken off the ventilator in a couple of days. The surgeon said that dad's expected to have a full recovery and should be able to have a normal life. He also said that it'll take him longer to heal because he's a diabetic.

I'm still a little worried about him. I'll feel better when he can talk on his own. I left him with a writing tablet so he can write down what he needs and what questions he has. And there's still a question of what's happening with the tumor he has on his renal gland. No one has biopsied it and it doesn't look like they plan on doing that anytime soon. I asked the surgeon about it and he said that it's too small for him to do anything about it. Will they wait until it balloons up, too, to do anything about it?

For right now, he's recooperating from his surgery. I hope he does well in his recovery. Thank you all for your support. It means the world to me.