Sorry if I alarmed any of you be going silent for a few days. Things happened very quickly but have almost come round full circle from where I left off. Weds, night he suddenly started vomiting blood and the family assembled in Sydney became convinced he was dying and called me to come up immediately. I had planned on flying up on Fir and changed my (non-refundable) ticket to fly up Thurs. By that time he had been moved from oncology to gastroenterology. He was a bit dopey but still definitely alive. Long story short, he had severe acid reflux brought on by the pressure of the fluid in his belly pushing upwards and somebody making him lie flat. Thus bleeding. he had an endoscopy (the camera down your esophagus trick which I know well) and found he had severe acid reflux (as I do since it iis an FMS thingy). I was worried that he had varicose veins in his esophagus which can happen with liver disease but he doesn't. He was given something for the reflux, propped up in bed, and given a particularly vile medication that causes you to have continuous diarrhoea, as well as diuretics to pee away the fluid. Since then he has been excreting mightily to clean out his entire system; he is not happy with doing this but he doesn't get a dignity vote. The Dr said once he stabilized he could come home as soon as there was a bed available here. That turned out to be sooner rather than later so I hitched a ride in the ambulance (there goes another non-refundable ticket) and he is back in the same ward he left not so long ago. He is quite alert and is drinking well if not eating very much. The hospital's solution to saying he was hungry for the first time in day was to bring him a non-diabetic roast beef dinner. I was thinking along the lines of jelly (Jell-O) or something soft and bland or sandwiches. I had a very convenient and not very expensive hotel room, an Asian noodle house for dinner and a nice cafe where they learned to recognize me after one meal and were very friendly, keeping my plied with blueberry muffins and sandwiches. The NLA girls' club kept everyone informed and the cats minded, given I was only gone 2 days but it mattered a great deal to me not to worry about home. On Mon. I will get back in touch with the oncologist and see what's next. He did have 2 radiation treatments while he was in Sydney and whether it was that or the loss of the weight of the fluid, but his back hurts less and he could roll over for the nurses who were cleaning him up for transport without screams of pain. The oncology and liver specialists just thought the surgery too risky and that radiation and chemo will work more safely.