My Dad has a gallbladder infection that doctors at his hospital do not want to operate on. Cholecystitis. They do not want to remove it because it could cause a spread of cancerous tumors from his liver. They will neither remove nor drain it, they said.

He is intubated and on a feeding tube in the CCU since Friday. His fevers are not stopping because the gallbladder is still infected and they do not want to touch it. We haven't been spoken to about alternative procedures or medications. I have to do a lot of nagging.

He is completely sedated and being roused for 10 minutes each morning to see if he will follow directions. The first two days he did, today he did not. But they said it could fluctuate. He is obviously bedridden and cannot get out of the hospital until the fevers from the gallbladder stop, and he gets extubated with a good oxygen level and breathing rate. The fever is causing a high breathing and heart rate. His red blood cells are very low. His bilirubin levels are high, but no jaundice. The gallbladder infection is causing the fever but they won't touch it.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and has the hospital allowed you to administer your own medication? I don't know how it works and am afraid to ask the question if it happens to be prohibited. He is stuck there and I don't know what they are doing... I see only antibiotics, tylenol, and sodium chloride intravenuously, and the fever is not stopping. I need to do something. The feeding tube does have some gallstone dissolvers in its ingredients like 600mg of choline, but I don't know if we can wait and see if it is enough to clear the infection. It has been a couple days of a gradual increase of feedings now and the fevers remain. He is only 72. He was able-bodied, walking, talking, eating a few weeks ago. The day after a blood transfusion he had a case of delirium in the morning, and off we went to the hospital. He also had radiation the week before, and chemo the week of the blood transfusion. We get to the hospital and find he has a gallbladder infection they don't want to touch, and he's intubated, on a feeding tube, and with constant fevers now.

I tried getting Mucomyst (which is another name for NAC) but they don't want to give it because they say his lungs are fine. Even though I pointed out a study that it could help gallstone dissolution. Have any of you administered your own medication to somebody in the critical care unit, intubated, and on a feeding tube? What did you ask the hospital staff about it? Did they prohibit or allow it? Did it take some effort to get them to say yes? Is there anything more we can ask them to do about the gallbladder fevers if they won't operate? Could we insist, would it work? Are there any procedures that the surgeon might agree to with enough persistence?

If you've read this far, your thoughts are appreciated.