Tracy,

It's so foreign to me to not want to drink water and when you mentioned your brother, I just clued
in, you're the same Tracy who mentioned you lost your brother to cancer a year ago (in another
thread). This must be an incredibly painful time for you all.  I am so very sorry.

I know when my cousin in UK died, his father (my uncle) took a big nosedive (and died shortly after)
and she (my aunt) was never the same, a hollow shell for the rest of her life (many years).  Almost
sounds like your father's given up, so makes even less sense then that he's going for chemo, as if
he's just "going along with the program"...whatever someone authoritative suggests (without any real
thought to it).  I don't know if I'd trust an oncologist (other than Steph), they do what they do
(ie suggest chemo), the patient hears "cancer" and expects chemo, so it's up to someone else to say
"you have another choice..no chemo". I'd certainly "vote" and make sure it's understood that that is
a choice (if it was a family member I had access to).

A neighbour friend and I talk about these things frequently. His brother-in-law, who's in his early
80's has esophageal cancer. Before they could do surgery for that and chemo, he was found to have a
heart defect. So they opened him up for that surgery, then recovery, by then the cancer had spread
and had to have even more extensive esophagus surgery and he can't eat nor drink and now they're
going to be asking for chemo.  Neighbour friend just keeps shaking his head ... there's been no
quality of life in that family at all for over a year now, yet he feels he can't say anything
because it's his sister's husband, so not quite family the same as a brother or a husband or
father.  Probably a non-starter anyway, because at last word things were looking grim. My point
(gasp...getting long) is that so much quality of life was lost. Neighbour said "it'll always be a
relief to the family when he dies", they've all had such a rough time the past year.  Sad, isn't it?
When they could perhaps have been doing so much else in the interim.

Other than that, here's what I found.
http://health.yahoo.com/health/encyclopedia/000982/0.html
Dehydration can also occur from inadequate intake as in:
nausea
refusing to drink because of mouth sores (stomatitis) or a sore throat (pharyngitis)
acute illness with loss of appetite

(here's one I'll add, and I'm no medic, dehyration in of itself can maybe be an acute illness..
and/so is he getting IV fluids?)
Another one, something worse gone wrong in his brain.  (the reason I'm thinking that is because of
Lowkey's "nausea without vomiting"..it was a stumper and I still feel awful that I didn't clue in
that something was very wrong there.

So if no one has checked his mouth or throat, something to look into? And did you read the thread
about "incessant coughing"..some other ideas there as to possible causes and solutions. (in case
someone's just assuming it's smoker's cough which it could be).

Gee, I think I've babbled enough. No need to reply, if you're tired of explaining :-)
Hugs
J