Another day, another obstacle. Dad's white cell count has been increasing over the past several days. Even on 3 powerful antibiotics, this count continues to rise. This means there is an infection (a rather large one) somewhere in Scott's body. I received a call this morning from the PA and her news was not the greatest way to start a Monday.
Dr. A feels that it is necessary for Scott to undergo yet another surgery. This surgery would diffuse a potentially bad infection in his abdomen. As mentioned the other day, there is a hematoma that formed from surgery a week ago and the doctor believes this to be the source of Scott's infection. Surgery would mean resecting his staple line, which is healthy wonderfully, excising the hematoma, and cleaning his abdomen to reduce the likelihood of the infection returning.
The idea of this second emergency surgery is not comforting since it is exploratory in nature. Scott's body has also been slow to recover from the initial surgery and will be even slower when this second surgery is successful. Not only this, but he still in "liver failure" so the blood will not clot as it normally would otherwise, which may lead to additional abscess or hematomas post surgery.
I have not authorized the surgery until there is more discussion between the surgeon and the plastic surgeon and with myself to be sure Scott's body can even handle this surgery, or if there are other options to help determine the actual source of the infection.
I'll have more to update later this afternoon when I chat with the doctors.
No comments:
Post a Comment