Uncle in Hospital (3 Weeks Now)

I guess I should explain to everyone another reason that I've been disappearing and emotional. Other than my kitty, which has caused a great deal of pain simply because of how it all worked out...and I believe I made the wrong choice), there are family members who are struggling. My cousin has a malignant tumor in one of her kidneys, but can't have surgery for another 2 months. I really hope it doesn't spread in that amount of time. My mum has a lump under her arm in the chest region, but I haven't heard anything in awhile about it because of what else is happening. She just lost her sister to cancer a few months ago, and now it looks like she is going to lose her brother in a short time. And it never should have been this way. Uncle Bob lives in the country, so he was referred to a surgeon at the local hospital there. He had gall stones. No biggie. They figured an overnight stay. He was to have to slits made in his side, and they would just remove the stones...and he'd go home 1-3 days later. He winked at us and said that he figured he'd probably be going home on the same day! Lol. Childbirth is more painful than cutting into the gall bladder. After the surgery, he just kept going downhill. Worse and worse each day. He couldn't eat, he was on oxygen, he could barely keep his eyes open. He managed to say that he had never felt so tired in all his life. He couldn't even sit up. The staff tried and tried to get the surgeon to come in and check on her patient. Something was obviously not right. This is not the way to recuperate from gall bladder surgery. She wouldn't come. The head nurse was trying to get a room for him here in the city...where there is better care and equipment. My Uncle Jack went to the surgeon's office to find out what was happening. She looked up at him while she remained seated at her desk and said, "It was a very difficult operation. I did the best that I could." Then she went back to her paperwork. So....he had been abandoned in that hospital room by his surgeon. But the staff finally got him a room in one of our hospitals here. ICU, here we come. And he was jaundiced, too. The new surgeon went in to try and perform some sort of dye test, but that didn't work. However, he had this to tell us: His bile duct had been COMPLETELY SEVERED from his liver. That woman surgeon did this to him, and then just had him sewn back up and sent to Recovery. She was probably hoping that he would pass away while in the hospital and everyone would think it was just his age and he didn't have the energy to pull through. The family wouldn't suspect, and an autopsy would never be performed. He was just an old man that wasn't strong enough to withstand the surgery. And she's STILL operating on people!!!! But she knew she had severed the duct completely off.....what type of surgeon, after making such an atrocious error, just have him sewn back up and wiped her hands of him. She knew it would kill him!! And he was like that for a week before getting up here to the city. The new surgeon did a second operation the next night (quite late, and it lasted into the wee hours of the morning. A LONG operation). He reattached the bile duct to the liver. As far as that goes, the gall bladder, duct, and liver are working fine now. The jaundice is leaving. It's very painful for him to move or talk because of the long "bandage" (the word used by the surgeon) that was necessary for the duct. But that is all working fine now. After one week of actively dying, this surgeon repaired the damage done to him and he was getting better. He was very tired, of course, and he stayed in ICU....but the horror story seemed to be over. Then......we find out that he took a turn for the worse. He has one completely collapsed lung, 2 blood clots in the other lung, and seepage in his stomache. Oxygen 24/7, blood thinners for the clots. Seepage is from an ulcer they found. So...off the blood thinners, and they tried to suction the blood clots out. Got some, but not all. If people visit, it can only be for a few minutes. The nurses don't want him getting excited or anxious. When mum and dad were in there, he looked at them both and then his chest started heaving and they were made to leave. Poor man. My mum had told him that he was getting better because he wasn't nearly as yellow as he had been. Well, yeah....they fixed the duct to the liver so of course the jaundice would be getting better. But that wasn't the problem anymore. It was the lungs and stomache. Mum told me how swollen his fingers were. I didn't tell her why that could happen. I'd bet you my computer that his feet are swollen, too. Lack of oxygenated blood. And the extremeties are the first to be affected. He's had 3 or 4 blood transfusions already. I wish she had noted his cathetar bag, although she wouldn't have known what she was seeing. I would have liked to have known if his kidneys were shutting down. I worked with a patient once who was unconscious and swollen tremendously everywhere....even his penis was huge. There were photos of him plastered all over the walls....a slim, well-dressed and groomed gentleman with an incredible smile. Playing with the grandkids, sitting with his wife, lots nd lots of family photos, all with a kind face and beautiful smile. He looked nothing like this man in the bed. I would sit there and just hold his hand, stroke it, and talk to him to let him know that he wasn't alone. I have absolutely no idea if he heard me or felt me....but I wanted to comfort him if I could. Another nurse and I would roll him over on his side so we could change the padding under his back because he was oozing fluids out of all his pores. Then we'd put a fresh one in place, and roll him onto his back again. Since his kidneys had shut down, fluids had to come out somewhere. When it was time for me to leave, the family came in. One young youngster (maybe 15 years old) was constantly reading from his Bible. I said that I would leave now, and they asked me to stay. I did for awhile, but I really felt like I was intruding. So I did finally go. One of the family members (a woman who just so happened to be a doctor herself.....I didn't know that) thanked me for everything. I told her how I hadn't done much.....but that I did stroke his hand and talk to him. He wasn't alone. She was very grateful. It was about the only thing I could do....he was not in good shape. And a few hours later he passed away. Anyways, I didn't want to tell my mum what MIGHT happen with her brother. He's been in the city for 2 weeks now, and I was just concerned with him getting pneumonia from having layed in bed for a full week at the other hospital, and now not moving around very much. But when this whole episode with the lungs, blood clots, and ulcer came up....I knew he has a real battle on his hands. And the surgeon here is so upset with the other surgeon. He said that it should have been such a simple operation. But she basically just tore the bile duct right off his liver and then closed him up. Anyways, my family seems to be dying. My aunt, then my cat, now my cousin has cancer in her kidney, and mum has a growth of some sort that she doesn't mention anymore. She was going in for tests, etc....and she'd keep us up to date....but when this happened with her brother, nothing else mattered. So I don't know if she has something malignant or not. And I don't think I should ask. She's having a difficult time holding up under all this pressure. So sometimes I don't feel like posting. I *did* get the carpets vacuumed (lol) and so all of my cat's fur is gone now. I scrubbed out his litter box, but I need to re-do it. And I still haven't cleaned the mattress yet. Because that will be the last of him. Okay, enough of all this. Just wanted you to know that my moods switch easily, and I know that I need to apologize to some of you. I just need to go through the Comments section in my Library, and find out who I may have been rude to or short with. Or didn't answer at all. I'm still around, though. I come onto the site every day, at different times. Sometimes I stay up all night and sleep during the day, and then vice versa. And the night before last freaked me because it was around 4:30am, I was on the computer, and then I hear someone trying to fit a key into my door....very quietly. Very, very quietly. By the time I got up the nerve to softly walk to the door without making the floor creak, there wasn't anyone at the peephole. He had left....very quietly down the hallway. He did not act in the slightest as though he were coming home and just made a mistake and went to the wrong apartment. He was TOO quiet. And I really don't want all that to start happening again. I thought Mystery Man was gone, but this one had a key. My lock is a little tricky, though. You have to fit it in *just right*, or it won't turn (even though it slides right in). Well....this was about my Uncle Bob. If any of you pray, my family would appreciate it. (Oh, and the photo is just something I pulled from the Net.) I also removed all my erotica photos and quit the Erotica Group. And I stopped "playing" on the webcam. I figured I was nothing more than a toy, so I might as well give everyone something to get happy about! I guess I was travelling a little down the self-destructive path. Have a wonderful day!