Pleural Effusion ?
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Home now. It feels good.
He will be on Ceftriaxone (Rocephin) until the 14th then sometime after that we go back up for the CT scan and chest x-ray. I am reading though everything they did up there and it sounds like they are pretty sure there is some sort of cancer again….not cc but more likely a lymphoma….we would never be so lucky as to have it be Hodgkin’s again.Sure has Mark down. He’s thinking maybe he was meant to die when he was 14 and somehow beat that so now he’s on borrowed time….or time he wasn’t supposed to have at all. I guess be depressed right now is appropriate. I am more angry than anything else. Maybe give it a few more days and that part will wear off. It just sucks.
KrisV
Dear Kris, there is nothing like being home! I too can just see the looks on the faces of the Docs. I don’t think Calamari/Squid is a pretty site anyway although Teddy thought it was the best thing in the world. UGH! I would never have made a good Sicilian. I hope Mark makes a speedy recovery as it will be great when the ever ready rabbit is up and ticking again.
Glad to hear that you guys are heading home Kris and so hope that things improve a lot and very quickly as well. And as far as vomitting the squid back up goes, you are so right in that did give me a laugh! Shouldn’t really be laughing at someone being sick, but you know what I mean. I can so picture the docs getting freaked out by that one and trying to figure it out. Bet they won’t have learned about that in med school!
Hugs,
Gavin
Finally got everyone on the same page around here. I kind of hate having all the different specialties when we are in the hospital. We have infectious disease, GI, Onc, pulmonary and the hospitalists all chiming in. I told them yesterday they better get it together or I was just taking him home.
We are going home today with three weeks of IV antibiotics through the port then a week after the antibiotics are done we will come back up to see the Onc and have a new chest x-ray and CT scan done. Plan after that will depend on the pleura and if there is a bigger or continuous effusion. Everyone agrees that there just is not enough time since the last CT and x-ray to really tell if it is stable, worse or better. Onc came in today and he really does not thing that it is the cc. He thinks IF it is anything then it will probably be a lymphoma…..Julie I know you said something about that. Onc doesn’t think it’s anything but pulmonary is pretty sure it is so there you go.
I think this was actually more scary this go around than last. When he passed out at home Sun am, I really thought he was dead….he just was so gray and clammy. Then when they did the procedure and he was still vomiting blood…..they kept him intubated and in CCU for several hours because he aspirated blood during the procedure. I really thought I was gong to lose him. But like the old Energizer Bunny he just keeps ticking away.
And this will give everyone a good laugh….he went out to dinner with our three boys Saturday night and they went to a Chinese buffet and he apparently had sushi and some fried squid or calamari. When he started vomiting the blood here in the hospital he had one of the docs freaked out when he vomited the squid and she couldn’t figure out what it was…..tentacles I guess were pretty strange. I about died laughing when I figured out what she was upset about.
Thanks everyone. You all give such good support.
KrisV
Sorry to hear this news Kris. Wish I could say something that would help right now but please know that I am thinking of you both lots and wishing good things for you both as well. You know that we are all here for you always.
Hugs,
Gavin
Kris….do what you have to do…..get through it and on to what comes next. Even if it turns out to be another type of cancer like Lymphome, Mark may change his mind about treatment. The “curability” of a Lymphoma may be far better than what he might expect. Back in 1984, my dad got large cell lymphoma, a rare, aggressive cancer, and as aggressively fast as it was, it also was known to respond to chemo very quickly and well. And while it seems the doctors “think” it is a cancer…..the percentages aren’t close to 100% with the exudative effusion. I don’t understand how they can ignore the probable infectious cause with WBC, but maybe they are just investigating all possible things in an effort not to assume anything , miss something and be wrong. As for what you have and haven’t shared with others about the whole picture of what is going on…….You know what your family can handle and what they can’t…..and right now, if this is the way YOU can get through this better…then follow your gut and let the chips fall where they may. You’re certainly not going to hell . LOL Meanwhile…..I’ll be saying an extra prayer for you and Mark tonight….and until this is resolved.
Julie T.
So far we will know it’s exudative effusion and it has WBC’s in it which it shouldn’t have. so there is some infection some where. I read the consult notes from the Onc and the pulmonary doc and they both think it is a cancerous process…..not related to the cc but probably related to the radiation so possibly a lymphoma…..there is even an enlarged node in the chest that has grown in the last 6 weeks…..ugh I hate it when they don’t tell you everything. There will be some serious questions as soon as I can corner a doc.
I too have a tendency to blame it all on the cc but I know that there can be other types of cancer. Of course it would have to be another weird type of cancer. I have done my normal amount of reading and putting things together. Probably not a good idea but who knows.
He did tell me today that if it is cancer he doesn’t want to do treatment which was kind of a shock to me since he had always said he would treat for as long as possible. I know he is getting tired of being poked and prodded. I suspect it’s just the frustration of being in the hospital again.
I probably am going to go to hell because I have down played everything that is going on so that no one panics but if it comes back cancerous I will have to explain why I didn’t say something sooner. I have one child though that suspects it is possibly much worse…..there is always that one.
I will keep posted.
KrisVKris –
Short and sweet – you can’t “pack it in”. You and Mark have come so far, it’s just not in you to go down that road. You bet , it’s certainly a downer. But, suck it up and keep on going. You’ve helped so many here, it’s time to help yourself. Know that we are with you all the way.Duke
Marion…..you are so right about a tendency to blame any health occurence on this cancer. But, I’m so glad that there are doctors who do take it seriously and not blow off symptoms that need to be investigated.
Glad that you checked for occurences of pleural effusion also…..so it wasn’t just my eyes that didn’t find much. Post operative makes sense…and if only one reported occurence, it isn’t much.
I have a problem with many doctors who hear that I have type II diabetes and then anything I ask them about….the response is that it must be due to the fact I have diabetes….instead of doing some checking to rule out other things. I had leg cramps every morning at 4 a.m. and every 15-20 minutes until I got out of bed for a number of years…..said something during that time to my GP….who insisted it was neuropathy from the diabetes. I knew it wasn’t. I discovered quite by accident that statin drugs can cause leg muscle cramps. When I stopped the statin….the leg cramps went away in 1-2 months. I’d suffered for years with that nonsense. I just finished chemo last fall…and between the final two rounds my toes began to feel very stiff and kind of numb feeling. I didn’t realize that was neuropathy because I expected to have some pins and needles feeling. At my last oncology meeting, I mentioned it…and asked if that was neuropathy caused by the chemo they kept telling me about…and suddenly, the response was, “Well, at this point of having diabetes, it could be diabetic neuropathy.” Uh…I don’t think so. It seems sometimes, that once we get labeled with a disease, whether it’s diabetes, cancer…whatever…., that is the answer for any symptoms we might have and the doctors take the “easy diagnosis” instead of really checking things out. This is a pet peave of mine….if you haven’t realized by now.
Julie T.
Chris…within the thousands of reports we had only one report on pleural infusion. And, that was a postoperative complication.
We have a tendency to blame any health occurrence on this cancer, but so often it simply is not the case.
Hugs,
MarionKris…..I didn’t have much time to do anything else, so decided to do some research on the web now instead of later.
Causes I found other than cancer for exudate type effesion:
Use of Drugs:
Methotrexate, Procabazine, Cyclophosphamide, and Bleomycin. I did find a couple instances of Oxyplatin causing pleural effesions
congestive heart failure,
Pneumonia
Pulmonary embolism
Low serum albuminExudate type does have some risk of being a malignancy, but not 100% so .
There is a very low association of pleual effesions with gastro -intestinal cancers. There will may be some risk, but it is indeed rare.
Since Mark has a “touch” of pneumonia, it’s very possible that is the cause of the effesion…unless he had a pulmonary embolism that they didn’t catch on the CT.
Since the CT was just clear so short a time ago, it would seem reasonable to think that this is something associated with what is currently happening to him. But, I know you aren’t going to feel okay about all of it until the docs get to the bottom of it.
I’ll keep checking.
Julie T.
Kris…..I was having a hard time finding anything (which is good…right?)….but wanted to look again tonight when I had more time. Not finding anything doesn’t mean it isn’t possible….but the liklihood goes down considerably. I know what you mean about if things are rare…..then they will happen to you. We have had the same problem. That’s why I never take comfort in hearing someone tell me that the side effects in the papers for drugs NEVER ALL happen to someone. Because…for me….it’s the opposite. Will get back to you later tonight.
I imagine Mark IS grumpy….and dang it…he has a right to be. Crap just continues to happen and you guys are due a break.
Julie T.
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