What’s Normal Following Lung Surgery?

Hi everyone 

My dad is 79 and had surgery to remove most of his right lung nearly 2 weeks ago. There were some complications after the surgery - sepsis and a heart problem. He was discharged last Friday, leaving hospital with about 20 different medications. 

He lives alone. My mum passed away at the end of January. My dads op when meant to take place then but had to be deferred when my mum took a turn for the worse. 

Since being discharged from hospital my dads complained of feeling weak, nauseous and dizzy frequently, as well as pain from the op. We ended up in A&E last night as he had a GP appointment for a vitamin B12 injection and when they measured his blood pressure it was extremely low. We waited 5 hours to see an emergency doctor who said the GP could have treated my dad. Anyway he’s took a blood pressure medicine out to see if it will help ease the dizziness.

We were at A&E until about 11pm. As we were going home my dad said the pain had gotten a lot worse. He went to bed, didn’t get up at all today saying it was too painful to get up. He also won’t eat or really, drink, very much. His eating has been on and off since leaving hospital but today he’s only had a tiny bit of a ham salad and about half a cup of tea. 

Clearly he’s not going to feel less ‘weak’ until he starts eating better but I can’t convince him to do so. He still has a drain in. Hopefully it might be removed on Thursday. 

Does all this sound “normal” for post lung cancer surgery? The total loss of appetite, the up and down pain, the feeling weak all the time? I don’t know if it’s just par for the course or whether something else is going on? All feels a bit desperate right now. I’m visiting 3 times a day currently but have a young child at home to care for too.

Thank you for reading.