Scan results: Liver abscess

I was feeling extremely nervous the whole night. The next morning, mom and I went to the hospital. I went to the patient service centre to complete the admission process as well as request a room upgrade to a single bedder. Mom went in to see dad first. 
I called her to check on dad's condition while waiting for my turn, mom said Dad had an ice pack over his head and the nurse told mom his fever went as high as 40.1 degrees in the middle of the night. When I saw him, he looked awfully pale and unwell. They have put him on a drip and started administering antibiotics.
The doctor checked with me if there's a family history of liver cancer and asked if he's been yellowish with jaundice. That really scared me to near death.
Late morning he was brought away for a CT scan. The scan took quite some time. Agonizing.
More agonizing is the wait for the radiologist report. It took forever. Finally an Indian doctor conveyed the scan results to me. What he said almost got me crying buckets.
He said the scan showed a big liver abscess 5cm. Worrying as it is quite big. As the pus may burst causing infection to spread to other organs. I've read that it is life threatening as the infection can even go to the brain. Dad will need surgery asap. He also added that dad most likely.has diabetes and they'll need to start him on insulin.  The way the doctor looked as he spoke to me is like my dad is in serious condition.
He ended by saying that they'll call the surgeon to fill me in with more information.
Later we were told that the surgeon is in OT and will come by.once his surgery is over. In the meantime I found out more about liver abscess.
Pyogenic liver abscess is a pus-filled area in the liver.
There are many potential causes of liver abscesses, including:
* Abdominal infection such as appendicitis, diverticulitis, or a perforated bowel
* Infection in the blood
* Infection of the bile draining tubes
* Recent endoscopy of the bile draining tubes
* Trauma that damages the liver
The most common bacteria that cause liver abscesses are:
-   Bacteroides
-   Enterococcus
-   Escherichia coli
-   Klebsiella pneumoniae
-   Staphylococcus aureus
-   Streptococcus
In most cases, more than one type of bacteria is found.
Symptoms include:
- Chest pain (lower right)
- Clay-colored stools
- Dark urine
- Fever, chills
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea, vomiting
- Pain in right upper abdomen (more common) or throughout the abdomen (less common)
- Unintentional weight loss
- Weakness
Tests may include:
- Abdominal CT scan
- Abdominal ultrasound
- Bilirubin blood test
- Blood culture for bacteria
- Complete blood count (CBC)
- Liver biopsy
- Liver function tests
Treatment usually consists of placing a tube through the skin to drain the abscess. Less often, surgery is required. You will also receive antibiotics for about 4 - 6 weeks. Sometimes, antibiotics alone can cure the infection.

This condition can be life threatening for some patients. The risk for death is higher in people who have many liver abscesses.

Finally the surgeon came, he spoke to the nurses briefly before going beside dad. The first thing he said to dad was "uncle, don't worry you are going to be OK."

That was the best thing I've heard all day!!!

He later explained that dad will need a surgery to drain out the pus. After that he will need to be on antibiotics for 6 to 8 weeks. But he don't see that there will be complications after that.

He said that surgery can be done in two ways. One is through a catherer method done under CT scan by radiologist which requires only local anesthesia. The other is a key hole surgery done by the surgeon under general anesthesia. He informed that there is currently a research study that's going on whereby patients will be randomized to undergo a particular method.

Not long after the surgeon (later I found out that he's Dr Shridhar) left, a research assistant came to explain the research study. It is on a voluntary basis and we can choose not to participate and decide on our preferred method of pus drainage. Dad wanted the surgery method and so it was decided as such.
The research assistant will inform the surgeon and they will schedule the operation as soon as possible; most likely tomorrow morning.
Dad was finally given the green light to eat. The poor man has not eaten anything for more than 30 hours. Mom and I went to buy him some bread and red bean soup. He managed to eat some red bean soup.

We were told that dad can be transferred to his new ward at Kent Ridge wing, ward 5A bed 10. The porter came and we were finally moving to a more private space just as the next door neighbour's party was about to start.

I was actually more concerned about cross infection than noise and privacy.

Once Dad settled down in the new ward, we went home to rest and prepare ourselves for an even longer and nerve-wrecking day tomorrow.