So there's some good news about my mom, and that's she was mistaken about what the oncologist told her on the phone. Her lung does not have a lot of tumor, instead what the doctor was trying to tell her was that her lung was half-filled with fluid again. And other than the fluid, her CAT scan looked relatively unchanged from her last CAT scan.
The bad news of course is the fluid in the lung. She had fluid removed her lung less than a month ago, so it's not good that it's returned so quickly. The last time she had fluid removed from her lung she was able to last a year without having another thoracentesis. So this time around they're going to do a procedure called a thoracoscopy, a treatment designed to seal the area around the lung where fluid would normally collect to prevent new fluid from accumulating.
The procedure is painful, and requires that fluid be fully drained, so my mom is in the hospital (O'Connor Hospital in San Jose) for the procedure. It's expected she'll be in the hospital for several days. She's already received a morphine drip. Next they're going to put in a chest tube today to drain the fluid, they'll let the fluid drain for over 24 hours and then before removing the tube, they'll inject powder to seal the pleural layers of the lung.
The procedure is about 70% effective in preventing future fluid build-up, and if it's not effective in my mom, she'll have to repeat the procedure. We expect her to be home either late Thursday or sometime on Friday.
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