The road to happiness is strewn with setbacks. I had cancer, it was cut out of me: that’s a bad thing but also a good thing. The hepatic resection was a big surgery and usually it takes half a month to recover. Although my surgery went smoothly, it took me one and a half months to recover.
People going through a crisis are sometimes able to go through it more calmly than those who aren’t directly affected. Although on my body I had six tubes inserted, a gastric catheter, central venous catheter, two abdominal drainage catheters, a urethral catheter, a back anesthesia catheter and an arm peripheral venous infusion catheter I was still able to take things calmly. The day after my operation my daughter-in-law flew in from Shanghai to see me. As soon as she entered my hospital room she whimpered and cried. I asked her what was wrong. She said, “Father, you were such a lively person before, how have you become this?” My daughter-in-law was not a medical student and she had not seen the hospital “world.” When she saw me like that she must have felt very shocked. I've been a doctor for a long time, facing patient in pain was a common occurrence that I'd taken for granted. From my own personal experience now, I wanted to be more considerate and caring of patients. This is what I thought.
After the surgery I didn't feel pain because I was receiving regular analgesics to numb it. The next day, in order to stimulate peristalsis and reduce intestinal adhesions I half sat up on the bed. On the third day, I turned over and did some leg exercises. After a few days, the catheters mentioned above were successively removed. I forced myself to eat and climbed off the bed to urinate. I was pleased and demanded my laptop be brought to me so I could read some literature against my wife's opposition. A week later I had a blood test to detect the tumor marker, it had been quite high at CA19-9 but had returned to normal. I was waiting for the abdominal wound stitches to be removed. I thought I’d be able to return to my office early and make my ward rounds.
Ten days after surgery the abdominal belt was opened. This was the first time I saw the upper median abdominal transverse incision, it was as long as twenty centimeters. A hepatolobectomy needs a long incision to be performed. Before the operation, Professor Hu had discussed the surgery options with me, I already agreed that it didn’t matter how large the incision needed to be. But when I looked at it I was shocked to see incision congestion and partial apophysis. I realized this meant trouble: fat liquefaction.
The blood vessels on the surgical incision had been severed, lack of adequate blood supply to the subcutaneous fat can lead to liquefaction, which can often happen to those whom have abdominal fat hypertrophy. How can my abdominal wall be so blubbery? I think it’s bad luck.
A few days later, the whole incision liquified, all the sutures had to be removed to expose the incision and allow the fat to entirely liquify so it could be cleaned out.
There were no special drugs that could be used, the only treatment was to change the dressing on the incision daily so that the necrotic material could be removed and protect the wound granulation. During this time, the psychological burden outweighed the physical pain, I didn’t know when I could put my head under a shower or take a hot bath and I didn't know when I could walk into the wards and see my patients again?
To date there are no effective methods to prevent fat liquefaction. Although it's not a life threatening condition, it does torment people and can lead to medical disputes. Medicine often has quandaries, fat liquefaction is one of those puzzles.