My Dad was admitted to hospital a week ago with severe pain in his side. He's had a lot of scans and blood tests which have revealed liver issues, a shadow on his lung and a broken rib. The doctors are pretty sure it is an aggressive cancer but don't know where the primary source is. His platelet count is low and has dropped since his admission (in fact he was due to go home today but was kept in at the last minute because of this). He has a lot of fluid on his stomach and leg which they are going to drain. He's had a biopsy on a lymph node but they didn't want to biopsy the liver as there is a big risk of a bleed due to the low platelets. I think they are speculating that it's a bone or blood cancer, which seems logical to me as otherwise I would think they would have seen a primary tumour on the scans. He'll get the biopsy results on Tuesday.
This is all a huge shock as he's only 70 and has been in good health until now apart from being overweight - in fact he was due to have a hip replacement at the end of this month and had the pre-op a couple of weeks ago when everything seemed fine.
I've actually only found out today as I'm not in the UK and he didn't want me to worry about him. My brother has seen him a fair bit and thinks he's deteriorating. My sister said that he struggled to get through a phone conversation with her as he was so breathless. He's been moved to a private room (in haematology) tonight, because of the deterioration according to my brother.
I know nobody can tell me what will happen but I guess I'm posting to see if anyone has gone through something similar, and what the outcome was? My brother will keep me posted but I'm trying to weigh up whether I should go there as soon as possible or if I can wait until they get the biopsy results. It's a short flight away but my own health is not great. They are giving him platelets tonight and draining the fluid - is that likely to stabilise him?
Thanks for any help.
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MountainDweller · 21/04/2017 21:40
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