The Fluid Is Back

Cheryl has been complaining about shortness of breath for over a week. Last Friday's visit to the oncologist did not offer any real explanation and her problem continued to worsen over the weekend. On Monday, she called Dr. Wumi, the local pulmonologist's office and they scheduled her an appointment for Tuesday afternoon.

After an exam and review of symptoms, Dr. Wumi said that she might be suffering from a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung),so he scheduled her for a CT with and without contrast first thing this morning. Her follow up appointment was at 3:20 this afternoon. Dr. Wumi told us that the the good news is she doesn't have a pulmonary embolism but the bad news is that the pleural effusion (fluid buildup in the lung cavity) that she had when the cancer was diagnosed last summer is back. He let us view the CT scan and showed us that only about a fist sized portion of her left lung can fill with air due to the amount of fluid that has occurred.

This may be a sign that there is active tumor activity in the pleural lining. He won't know for sure until after they have drained the fluid and done a cytology report on it.

I will do an update tomorrow evening. Please be in prayer that this is not a recurrence of her cancer.