It's a bit of a long tale, so I'll try to cut to the chase. Six weeks ago, my dad was rushed into hospital with abdominal pain. They identified holes in his bowel and a blockage so he was taken for emergency surgery where they removed the offending bowel and gave an ileostomy. Fast forward to yesterday (he's still in hospital) and the specialist said to my dad "has anyone explained what caused this?" (to which this answer was no) and then she told him that it was cancer. She said they they had removed it and it had been sent away for tests but results aren't back yet.
My dad seems fine with that, but I'm feeling a bit bewildered that this has only just been mentioned 6 weeks on. I suppose I'm here to ask you what questions should we be asking?
What are the tests that they have sent it for? Why test it if its removed? Is 6 weeks a normal wait for results like this?
I'm concerned that the cancer may be somewhere else and not just the part they've removed. Is it possible to tell that?
My dad isn't a good listener and may not have absorbed all the information he was told, but I asked four weeks ago to speak to a specialist to understand what was happening, and I'm still waiting - so me attempting to intervene isn't effective... my best hope is me writing down questions for dad to give her, but I don't know where to start.
