The side-effects of the radiation struck again. The doctor and my mom and I hoped that this would not be a problem with Dad's healing up but it was. You see the surgery required that Dad's throat be opened up and then he had to heal from the wound. When he had his radiation that is were all the radiation was aimed. When the doctor started to take out the stitches he noticed the Dad was leaking an abnormal amount of fluid from the middle of his wound and it would not stop, so the doctor decided to do a skin graft over the whole incision to make sure that it would heal correctly.
The doctor took muscle and skin from my dad's left shoulder and side area and started the procedure. When he got in to the wound my dad had a huge hole in the middle of the original incision. He had to rebuild some of the things that he had done in the first procedure. He said that it was a mess in there and if he had not given dad the skin graft he never would have healed on his own.
Mom said that when they first brought him back from surgery it looked like he had a sausage roll under his neck. They had put all this ointment and stuff all over it and it was pale skin. It was really swollen up too. When they got him back to his room they were have trouble getting him to take a deep breath for them so they called in the respiratory team, by the time they got there he was breathing fine. Mom said that she thought he was still in La-La-Land anyway so she didn't think that he could hear them all that well.
He has a little thing that they pin to his gown now that puts out water and air onto the graft and the whole his breathing tube was in, and they also give him breathing treatments through it. He's getting very good dope for his pain.
The doctor is giving no dates as to when he will be well enough to come home. I think dad is getting a little testy and is anxious to come home. He is starting to get really uncomfortable in his hospital bed and he tends to use a lot of pillows to make himself more comfortable.
Note: I saw dad for Christmas and the skin graft is now pink, which means that there is blood flow in the graft. It's still a little swollen and angry looking, but it hasn't been that long since he had his surgery.
