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Dad's in good hands
The spiral CT on my dad this morning has shown aAnyway from his diagnosis, dad is in no condition to have any operations done, due to his jaundice and a fever due to infection. The tumor itself is too small to cause the amount of pain he's having. It is actually caused by distention of the bile and pancreatic ducts. So the plan is to clear out the jaundice first and then work on getting him well enough for the operation.
Tomorrow he will be going for another ERCP, this time under full anaesthesia which is a huge relief for him cos he was pretty traumatized by the last one. They will be putting in a stent to keep the bile duct open and stop the jaundice. Only when everything is A-OK will he start preparing dad for the operation, which is known as the Whipple [jhu.edu] procedure. It's a big and difficult operation which has its own risks.
In any case, I feel he's in good hands now and tonight he's been given painkillers and sedatives to let him sleep, in preparation for tomorrow.
Posted 3 April 2003, 11:49 PM