Today, I saw the Gyno Oncologist...(or should I say she saw me)...our normal 3 month look up the vajayjay. I told her not to look at my toe nails...I ran out of nail polish removal last night...(half my toes were a mess)...she replied while snapping a glove on her hand, "I'm not here to look at your toes."
Oh yeah...I'll be over here in the stirrups.............
Medical Bulletins:
* My lung has been tapped 5 times within the 2 sessions of chemo I've gone through since June.
* One of the first things chemo usually clears up is the excess of fluid.
* My CA125 has not gone down.
* This regiment of chemo may not be working.
* It's early to bale on it but if my new CA125 test doesn't drop a couple hundred points...we will (I'll know more tomorrow).
She will have to contemplate the next cocktail to order for me...I did request one where I could keep my hair..."I just got it colored and everybody's been complimenting me on it lately."
Immediately following...Mom and I took the elevator to the 6th floor...there we met with my Pulmonary Dr. We had a lovely chat about the fluid that keeps accumulating in my right lung.
He is recommending a surgical procedure to fix the leak...I say just throw some duct tape around the damn thing and call it a day.
Procedure as follows:
"Pleurodesis: A procedure that causes the membranes around the lung to stick together and prevents the buildup of fluid in the space between the membranes. This procedure is done in cases of severe recurrent pleural effusion (fluid around the lungs), as from cancer, to prevent the reaccumulation of fluid.
In pleurodesis, an irritant (such as Bleomycin, Tetracycline, or talc powder) is instilled inside the space between the pleura (the two layers of tissue lining the lungs) in order to create inflammation which tacks the two pleura together. This procedure thereby obliterates the space between the pleura and prevents the reaccumulation of fluid."
I guess it's worthy of a lovely few days stay in the beautiful privacy of my very own hospital suite...party at my place!
I'm being sent to a chest surgeon on Tuesday 7/29...2pm...I'll learn more then...although I did just receive this email from Lisa Hottle Mann...I usually call her first for all my medical advise............she's much older and wiser than I.
Jo-ha!
I researched pleurodesis and it sounds totally awesome! Ok, maybe not awesome, but tolerable…and effective! It sounds just like you said. They will probably use talc as the sclerosant (chemical irritant)—now I know why they say don’t use baby powder on baby’s butts anymore—it can cause pleurodesis! The studies I read said you stay in the hospital 2 to 4 days so the chest tube can completely drain the fluid before the procedure, then you leave it in a little while afterwards to drain the chemical out and make sure no other fluid accumulates (which means it worked). After effects seem very rare and minimal, although the chest tube might be uncomfortable, and the talc sometimes causes fever afterwards. Some people even do this as an outpatient. Not you, of course, because you like to do things the hard way, but that’s ok, we still love ya.
If you want, I can rig up Casey’s nebulizer with baby powder and we can do this thing ourselves. Doctors? We don’t need no stinking doctors.
Goodnight!
Love you…
LeeleepeepeeImeanleelee
