Miss Patel, true to her word, has come up with a plan to save the day. After studying the angiogram of Rick's neck it was apparent that the blood supply to the flap had been compromised - not entirely sure with what - samples will be sent to histology - and it was that which caused the failure, not the actual plumbing in. As Rick doesn't seem to have any usable arteries in his neck it would be a waste of time trying to patch up his failed flap with tissue from his arm as the results would not necessarily be any more successful, and so Miss Patel has decided to use some skin from his chest which does have its own very good blood supply, and stick that in his throat. The skin is slightly more bulky, but on the positive side, radiotherapy will cause some tissue to shrink, so at the end of the day he will have a perfectly fitting throat lining! Mr Dilkes is on standby so if she needs him, he will be there. This procedure should all be over even as I type this, Miss Patel was keen to get him down to theatre as soon as possible so that phase 2 of the treatment (ie chemo and radiotherapy)won't be delayed. He went down to theatre at around 4pm - this operation should take 2-3 hours, possibly a stay in ICU and then back to his ward. I will phone shortly to get news.
One last thing which made me smile but probably shouldn't - Rick had a problem with his overnight feed, somehow it came loose from his stomach tube and started disgorging the highly nutritious contents into his bed instead of his stomach. I won't ever grumble about toast crumbs in the bed!
Thank you for all your comments. I have been printing them off and taking them in to show Rick.
Thats all to report for now - more tomorrow.
Catherine
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Does Rick have a hairy chest?
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