The course of treatment for both tumours was operations followed by chemotherapy, but they could not be done together. First his bowel and colon had to be taken care of as this was the worst one, so he was booked in for his operation. I never went to see my dad after his operation as i couldn't bring myself to, and for this i felt awful, but i spoke to my mum and siblings every day to find out how he was getting on. I was always told he was fine and doing well. When he was allowed home a week later i went to see him and he looked no different to before he went in. I don't know what i expected to be honest, but i watched my brother die from cancer when i was 8 years old and i was scared of seeing my dad looking the same as it would have automatically made me think the worst no matter what.
He was told that the operation had been a complete success and that his chemotherapy could start in 10 - 12 weeks whilst the drs looked at the options for his liver cancer. The decision on that was to cut off the blood supply to the damaged part of his liver so that the tumour would stop growing and they re routed the blood supply to the healthy part of his liver. This was so that his liver would grow, so that when they operated he would have enough liver left to re generate and repair itself. If they had left it it would have been in operable eventually and that would have been it. A liver needs to have more than 30% of its size left to re generate and without re routing the blood supply my dad would have had less than this so it wouldn't have been worth the operation otherwise.
The 6 month stint of chemo for his bowel cancer was also successful, luckily my dad wasn't that ill on the chemotherapy and he was given the all clear at all his 3 monthly scans, while they monitored the liver situation. His liver responded well to the re routing and he was booked in for his operation.
