After gall Bladder removal-Major Problem for elderly woman

[Paes]

My mother had undergone gall bladder removal 2 years ago. During the surgery some complications had arose, as the operation took
4 hours instead of the normal time. After the operation the surgeon told my mom that she was a "Miracle Woman" to have survived the surgery, but no specifics were given. Now, two years later,she had been complaining about abdomen pain to her doctores, the doctor's had said that they could not see what was wrong. Finally, this Monday, she went to the hospital so that it can be further investigated. The fact as we know it are:

1-There seems to be 2 stones in her body.
2-They had to drain "puss" that was building up. Yesterday    alone, they drained 1 cups worth.
3-bacteria was forming and was touching other organs.(can   something actually be growing in her as a result)
4-The doctor had come to my mom and told her she had 3 options,

a) leave it as is
b) remove the stones
c)Perform major surgery(I believe to remove a growth)

When the doctor had come by, we were not there and could not inquire further as to what the condition was.

I would like to know what questions  I should ask the doctor so
that I can get a full understanding of the situation?

Also, are there any websites I can go to with pictures?

Thank you so much,

Ivan

[B'gail]

January 30, 2001, my husband had gallbladder surgery (the laproscopic surgery).  As far as we knew he was doing good.  He began to gain weight but it only seemed to be in his stomach that it really showed (we had to get bigger pants).  Still we thought nothing of this.
  Then on May 1, 2001, he woke me up in terrible pain.  Rushed him to the ER.  They did tests for kidney stones , found nothing.  Did a CTscan, still could not determine why he was in so much pain or why his stomach was so distended.  Finally, they called the doctors that did the surgery for his gallbladder.  They said there was a small amount of fluid around the liver (which the ER doctor said was a lot of fluid but the radiologist said was not much fluid).  They ran more test the next day and decided there was a bile leak.  They said they had never had anyone return this long after surgery with a leak, the usual time to come back with a leak is 2-3 days to 2-3 weeks.  So they went down his throat with a light and put a stint in the bile duct to bypass the cystic duct so it would heal and not leak. I also kept asking the doctors what they were going to do about the fluid that had collected around the liver.  Their answer was "the body will absorb the fluid and get rid of it".  I also asked how long that would take, they couldn't give me a time frame for that.  With all that they thought they had everything fixed.  They gave him round the clock antibiotic for about 6 days, and dismissed him.  We were to wait about 20 days and go back for an ERCP (thats to go back down the throat and take the stint out).  But 11 days later(May 18 on a Friday) he woke me again with extreme pain. Again I rushed him to ER.  This time I could tell them he had been in with this before.  He was sweating and hurting so much.  I had never seen him like this before.  They finally gave him enough to knock him out.  They did a CTscan and admitted him.  They couldn't believe that the duct was leaking again, but they had to go back down and see for themselves.  When they finished they said the stint was not allowing leakage, but they took it out anyway and blew a balloon up and drug it down the bile duct and brought out a large stone. This time they told me his white count was 4 times what it should be and they thought he had pancreatitus (pancreatitis), and that it could be fatal.  5 days later (on a Wednesday night) his stomach was still distended, he could not lay on his right side, it hurt to much.  They still could not figure out what was going on, why he wasn't getting any better.  Finally, another doctor from their group was on call and came up just to check on him.  He said he hadn't been in, but he just wanted to see for himself.  He examined his stomach and said that he had a lot of fluid around the liver.  I said "YEA??????"  and what's going to be done about it.  He really didn't make to much of a comment.  But the next evening they brought a paper for me to sign which would give them permission to remove the fluid.  On Friday (1 week after he had come in)  they drew 1 liter off his stomach.  They said they would do a CTscan on Monday and if there was more fluid they would have to put a drainage tube in.  Sure enough there was more fluid.  So they put the tube in and drew out nearly a pint (before they brought him back to his room).  It took another 2 weeks of antibiotic for him to begin to feel improvement.  With the pancreatitus (pancreatitis) they wouldn't let him eat so they had to give him a bag of stuff (carbohydrates, proteins, etc every day) and every other day they gave him a pint of pure fat.  They said his body would begin to deteriate if he didn't get some nutriants.
  I asked the doctors why they didn't get the fluid off before and what caused the fluid?  They said usually the body will absorb and get rid of the fluid.  But the bile that leaked (May 1) settled on the organs in the body and caused an irritation and this caused the organs to sweat or give off fluid.  And it had no where to go except in the abdomen and all the organs just sat in the fluid getting more irritated and infected.  And until they decided to keep the fluid drained off he would not have gotten any better.  Birmingham, Al. was called and they confirmed what these doctors were doing.  If this had not worked he would have been sent there, because these doctors had done all they knew to do.  He was dismissed on the 7th of June, went back for them to remove the stint (June 19), but when they took the stint out they found 3 more stones and the cystic duct was still leaking some.  They put the stint back in and now we are waiting until July 24 to go back , hoping there will be no more leaking.
   I hope this will help some one to ask questions about your patient.