3 liters

Dad started off the day by having 3 liters of fluid drained from his abdomen and a drain was affixed from his liver to a tube that overflows into a bag outside of his body. At this time it is not clear to me whether the two bile ducts have been opened using stents. The idea was that the shortness of breath was caused by the pressure of all the fluid building up in his abdomen. After removing around 4 liters in less than 24 hours, it is clear that it has not helped his shortness of breath. The thought is now that the breathing issue is a symptom of the massive infection overwhelming his body.

Dad is hanging in there but his situation is precarious. His blood pressure dropped dangerously low during the latter procedure. They were able to artificially raise it using medication. He is now in intensive care and they are hoping that his blood pressure will stay up all on its own. If so he will be able to move back up to the penthouse room on the 13th floor. They were aiming to do this this evening or tomorrow morning, but as I left around 3pm they were still having real issues keeping his blood pressure elevated to a normal amount. In one nurse's words, "His blood pressure sucks."

I'm not sure if he was just tired, but he kept insisting that he had been in the hospital for three weeks when actually it has been 1.5 weeks. I'm sure it feels like eternity though with the the endless procedures and no significant good progress. One doctor really tried to brace me that we are most likely dealing with days or possibly weeks, rather than months. It is so heartbreaking.