Pain and discharge from drain 2 months after surgery

[jrzygirl81]

My dad had gallbladder surgery 2 months ago.  They tried the laproscopic way and he was too infected so they had to go in traditionally and cut him open right under his rib cage.  he had a drain put in.  The doctors had him start on clear liquid diet the day of surgery(tues).  the day after surgery they gave him solid foods (wed).  For some reason the food wouldnt digest and he had no bowel sounds for  days... Turns out that one of the ducts from his stomach that allows him to digest food became closed so his food was staying in the stomach and was it was forcing him to puke it up instead of digesting it.. he was really bad for about 24 hours, constantly puking... so they put a tube down his throat and wound up opening the closed duct... he's better from that now... BUT... he had a drain put in the day of surgery and it was removed about 10 days later... it's been 2 months and the doctor went back into his drain area about a week ago and had to reopen it to get the stiches out (that were on the inside he said).  his belly around the area of the drain and the incision are really red and swollen and hard to the touch.. he has been on antibiotic for about a week now and his drain is still pussing a whiteish/yellowish puss... what can this be.... is this normal?  when will he get better... he gets a lot of pain in that area of where the drain was and he gets very tired at points in the day..... should he be getting a second opinion or go to a different doctor?  any insight as to why he's feeling this way would be greatly appreciated...

[CalGal]

Let us know what happens, would you? Make sure you get a second opinion because it sounds as if the infection is on-going.

[jrzygirl81]

Well My dad had to go back in on Friday morning (6/13/08) since the area around the incision was increasingly hard and RED... it did not look healthy at all.. the doctor said that he had never seen that before and that he was not sure what could be causing it.  He cut him open again and removed the "packing" that was in, that they put in at the time of surgery to close up the wound and to keep everything in place.  He now has a new cut.. more like a gash on the top of his original scar which is still red all over and with some puss at the bottom of the scar.  His gash like cut had packing that the doctor told him to remove and replace every night, but when my dad goes to remove it and to change it it HURTS IMMENSLEY to the point that he almost passed out... I think we are going to take him for a second opinion because i dont believe that this should be happening like this.  He is very weak and barely eats and is in a lot of pain and discomfort.   i will ask about your question of the "leak" when he goes to see the surgeon again today.

[CalGal]

The area around the drain sounds as though there's been an infection going on and they're currently treating it with the antibiotics. Depending on the extent of the infection it could some time to clear it up.

Open GB surgery can be extremely painful - one of the reasons that they developed the lap form of surgery. In most cases it can take 6-8 weeks to really start to get better after 'open' surgery - even without an infection.

The question you want to ask the doc is how do you determine if the 'leak' that they apparently placed the drain for is absolutely closed. You may really want to 'push' that issue if you can. Get copies of ALL of the records of the surgery and doc's notes including the followup. I can't be absolutely sure, but I do not believe there should have been any reason to have to reopen the area to remove stitches. I could be wrong about that, but I would get the full details.

Your father has had quite a bit of trauma to that area of his body, so his getting tired is perfectly normal. But you want to make sure any 'leak' is not present at the current time.