So, now for the complications....

Thank you Wendy, sometimes one needs to be brought back to earth. Where I work, I see the worst of the worst, and I also know what many of these conditions can lead to, and therefore imagine the worst happening. I hope it is something as simple as epidytimitis, and I will hold out hope for that. The passing gas thru the urinary catheter, could indicate an emphysematous pyelonephritis, and they have told dad he has a "kidney infection". I worry about that, because it has a very high mortality rate and often requires a nephrectomy. It is a very severe, rare condition which almost exclusively affects diabetics.

Anyway, as I said a little knowledge can be a very bad thing when you are dealing with these types of things.

I'm concerned that they sent him home when he obviously was not well enough to go, the only blessing seems to be that the nurses are much friendlier in the medicine ward, where he was sent. Thanks! andrea

Andrea my dear, I am so sorry your father and family are dealing with a complication post-op, but as complications go, this one may well be a benign condition treatable with antibiotics. A possible reason could be 'epiditimytis' or maybe even 'epididymo-orchitis' which an infection that may be caused by surgical instruments among other things like sexually transmitted diseases (but given the circumstance I bet it's the first).

Here's the Mayo's info on this condition:
www.mayoclinic.com/health/epididymitis/DS00603/DSECTION=1

Please keep us posted on how things go with your father. It stinks that none of his 'real' doctors were around, but maybe this young guy in the E.R. knows what he is doing.
Wendy

So, once again, I need to pick your collective brains. In the last episode, my father was just a few days past his cystectomy and neobladder, and last Friday he was apparently well enough to go home.

So, Friday afternoon, I was on my way out of town to speak at a veterinary conference and I stopped in to see Dad. He looked very wiped, but I figured that was because it was his first few hours home and he had probably overdone it. Then I helped him get off the couch, and pulled him up by his hand. His hand felt very warm. My dad's hands NEVER feel warm, he has Reynauds Syndrome, a problem with circulation in his hands and feet. I felt his forehead, also warm. I stuck a thermometer in his mouth, and voila, 10 days post-op and he had a fever of 102.5.

I was so mad!!! He had been discharged only three hours before, apparently "well enough to go home". When my Mom picked him up, he was huddled under three blankets, shivering, and the nurses pulled him up and started dressing him. She didn't like the way he looked, and they just kept saying Dr. ... said he's ready to go!

So, Mom phoned the hospital, and talked to the "nurses" on the 5th floor, where he had just been discharged. They probably hadn't even changed his bed yet. They told her she would have to take him to Emergency to be reassessed.

Well, let me tell you that was a nightmare. They made my dad sit in a wheelchair after "triage" for THREE HOURS!!! Then, they took him in, he apparently looked like crap and they did bloodwork and a CT Scan, and said, you've got a "big" infection. Of course, being the weekend, the surgeon that did his surgery, or the urologist that is his primary care, wasn't available, and they had to call the urologist on call. He said to put him on this cocktail of antibiotics (4, from what I heard), that surprised even the ER doctor, and readmit him.

So, dad spent the weekend on IV fluids and antibiotics and yesterday,started passing gas through his urinary catheter!! What's up with that! Nothing good that I can envision, as all I am thinking is gas forming bacteria in the urinary tract, which is never a good thing.

I called him this morning, and he said the gas has stopped (as far as he knows), but now his testicles are hurting, so much that he is back on morphine. Apparently his whole scrotum has been super swollen since the surgery, but now suddenly the testicles "hurt" with a constant pain. Again, this doesn't seem like a normal thing considering his surgery is 2 weeks old.

Anyway, my mom just phoned the doctors office to see when my dad may be graced with a visit...sometime around lunch is the word. Then, if the urologist thinks they need to, they will call in the surgeon to look him over. I think they need to be doing quite a few tests today, I am getting very worried that I am going to lose my father!

Anyway, if anyone has any ideas of the complications that could be going on here, I'd appreciate hearing them! I'm hoping that they are not as serious as what I am envisioning, but you know, a little knowledge is a very bad thing when it comes to this!

andrea