I called the doctor that was on-call and explained what was happening. He told me to remove the tape and describe what I was seeing. After I passed along the fluid oozing and the incision wasn't healing evenly, he told me to put some gauze on it to catch the fluid and then make an appointment the next day.
At the appointment the doctor had to re-open the incision about half an inch deep to clean it out (he did this with an over sized q-tip, it was creepy looking). Then he packed inside of the incision with gauze and taped it back up. My husband was instructed to have this done a few times a day to clean out the minor infection and to make sure it didn't get worse. So, yup you guessed it, I was the one who got to do this yucky task. Oooh it gave he the willies the first few times, but then I got used to it.
The cleaning and packing lasted about a week and half and the incisions just healed itself. This was considered a complication in the doctors eyes, but besides this one incident, that was the only thing that went wrong for my husband from the surgery.
Fast forward to 2008 - My husband had his two year follow-up apt on 2/26 and he has a clean bill of health. His liver has grown back fully (actually it grew back fully in 2006 to 105%) and he just has to do a yearly phone call to check in with his surgeon/doctor. My father-in-law's liver is fully functioning and grown to what his body needs. He has to go to the clinic every 6 months to check in and check his progress. Also, he is on medications for the rest of his life to avoid any rejection issues that could occur.
"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
Helen Keller
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