Hospital Stay Underway

Cheryl went through the pleurodesis procedure this afternoon. We arrived before 9 AM and she went through a chest x-ray, CT scan and blood work before they hooked up her IV to get her ready for surgery. It was scheduled for noon but got pushed back to 1:15.

The actual procedure took about an hour and she spent two hours in recovery before before being transferred to a room. I had several folks from my Westside and First Baptist church families that spent most of the day with me while I waited.

I met with Dr. Jones while she was in recovery. He said that he drained about 750cc of fluid from her lung and he ran in the scope to see what is going on in her pleural cavity. There are a significant number of small tumors on her pleura (lung cavity lining) and a few spots on her lung. He did not perform any biopsies due to the risk with her being on Heparin (blood thinner). He said that there is not really any need to biopsy tissue since we already know that the diagnosis is (ovarian cancer recurrence). He put in two drain tubes, a large one which will come out in a day or two and a smaller one that she may go home with. Dr. Jones said that since the procedure went well, he hopes to have her go home in three days.

When she first arrived up on the fourth floor she was still a bit groggy and disoriented but after about fifteen or twenty minutes she was very lucid. Shortly before 7 PM she began experiencing some pain in her side and the nurse came and administered her pain meds. I read to her from I Corinthians 13-14 and she began to get very drowsy. I left around 7:30 and let her settle in for the night.

The pleurodesis did relieve her breathing difficulty for now but did not address the abdominal bloating she is experiencing. While she is hospitalized, the oncologist will schedule and review CT scans of her abdomen and peritoneum.

Pray that she will have a speedy recovery and that Dr. Burke will be able to come up with a regimen of chemotherapy that will be effective in this second fight.