Quick update

a big thank you to all the people who asked about me, my family and last of all, my father.

Currently he is still warded in the SICU. His second operation to remove the surgical packing on the liver parenchyma did manage to achieve surgical haemostasis via omentum packing. However, it required additional access to the inferior vena cava from which was achieved by a further median sternotomy.

he is currently stabile but still in a critical condition. his vital parameters are much healthier - HR 90, BP 120/80, CVP 30, RR 13, O2 sat 97%, and does not look pale and cold anymore. He appears to be grossly edematous but its probably due to the massive amounts of infusion products he recieved. as such he is on continuous dialysis to remove the excess fluid volume as well as to remove the excess creatinine and urea.

He is also in acute renal failure, but with early intervention (dialysis) we are hopeful that he will escape this round without any long term renal failure. His significant comorbidities of hypertension and diabetes do however negatively affect his prognosis. however, conservative estimates are at 80% full recovery which sounds quite healthy.

With regards to his novoseven therapy, he appears to have managed to evade its side effects. However we do not know whether his microvasculature was affected. we will have to wait till he is conscious before we can access any neurological deficient. The surgeon did report that a quick test of neurological function before the 2nd op revealed that he was able to respond to the surgeons finger by grasping it on verbal command - this heralds a better prognosis.

currently he battles complications from: infection from two sites, the thorax and the abdomen, ARF, the possibilty of a microvascular stroke and end artery infarct of his kidneys.

infection is possibly the greatest risk at hand.
suddenly hospital precautions on managing infection seem so much more real and acute.

as for the lump that started this entire circus, we still do not know if its a benign or malignant lump. the pathology report will be out next week. i would really like to see those damn cells. *grin*

we are hopeful.