A week ago when I saw my family doctor, we talked about draining my lungs of the extra fluid. When I was in the hospital, the scan showed that there was fluid in the lungs and I was told that if it got worse and restricted my breathing, I could get the fluid drained. I didn't know what that involved but at the time, I was more than relieved that I didn't have to do it! However, after talking to my doc, she noted some benefits of draining the fluid so I reconsidered. Basically, it would give my body one less thing to fight off and could also make the chemo work more efficiently. It could give my lungs more room to expand and therefore improve my breathing as well. Also, when there is excess fluid, there's a chance an infection could develop and I definitely don't need more complications. So, I decided to suck it up and get it done yesterday.
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| 1.3 Litres of fluid drained from my lungs |
They performed the procedure at BCCA in a hospital-like room on the 6th floor. A respiration specialist performed the procedure with a bunch of interested parties floating around to watch since they were using some fancy ultrasound machine. I sat on the edge of the bed hunched over the bedside table on a few pillows. The anesthetic they used was just a few pokes of a needle which was much worse in my mind than what it really was. After that, I couldn't really feel a thing. They used a long needle with a tube attached to it which drained the liquid into these huge glass jars. The draining only took about 10 minutes and they stopped when I started wheezing and had shortness of breath. Although they wanted to take out 1.5 litres of liquid, we ended up only doing 1.3 litres. Yes, litres! It was a light coffee colour and I couldn't believe it came from my body. I had a chest x-ray afterwards and apparently I have more where that came from but we will see how I react in the next few days to decide if I need more drainage. I was actually having a lot of trouble breathing immediately after which set in the panic but we were able to get hold of the doctor and she said just to see how I do in the next two days. If the drainage doesn't improve the breathing, then it doesn't have anything to do with the fluid and draining it again won't do anything. The only thing then would be chemotherapy. I was in pain all last night so I didn't get much sleep so today, after the oncotherm, I actually slept for a few hours.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it--it's getting tougher emotionally for me by the day. I can be unglued at the smallest thing but I'm learning to just let it out when I can because I know repression is the worst thing for this disease. Maybe I'm having a hard time because there are so many uncertainties ahead in the next two weeks. Appointments everyday this week also doesn't help because I really don't get any time to just rest at home. Today was my last oncotherm at least so I won't have to trek to Langley for a while until we figure out the rest of my treatment plan. I will also get a head CT tomorrow to see if there has been any change in last few weeks since the surgery. Also, and this is my last complaint--I hate needles! Because I only have one arm for them to poke, it's not a pretty site and I might involuntarily hit the next person who wants "another try". Okay, I'm done.
On top of all this, I've agreed to use a fake christmas tree this year for the first time! At least Elt promised it won't be every year...Boy, I really need a vacation!
J
