Better

The whole process took 4-1/2 hours, but the end result is worth it. Even though I still have lots of fluid remaining in my abdomen, the paracentesis relieved me of just under 2-1/2 litres (making me 5-1/2 pounds lighter).

I am now able to breathe easier, eat an entire meal and sit more comfortably. Hopefully I'll also be able to sleep better tonight and get some much needed rest.

Here is a picture of me from yesterday, bloated beyond belief and very, very uncomfortable. It affected my mood and I was somewhat withdrawn and anxious. I now feel much lighter in body and spirit.

I arrived a little early for my 9 a.m. appointment, only to discover the nurses in the stretcher bay were in a meeting. Okay, slight delay, I thought. Oh, how wrong I was. I got into the procedure room to discover the time of my ultrasound appointment was 10 a.m. An hour wait, during which the nurse took my vitals - and I read my book.

I was then wheeled through the hospital, on my stretcher, down to ultrasound. Once there, I waited for about 10 minutes until the technicial steered me in for the goopy process. After she identified what she thought were two or three good pockets of fluid, a radiologist (and his intern) came in to take another look and mark my abdomen with a black magic marker.

He got me to shift into an optimal position for "getting all the gravy out of the pan." I was in a reclined sitting position, tilted to the left and resting on my left buttock. This position required me to keep my balance with my right leg in a bent position on the bed. No problem, I thought. Little did I know how long I was going to have to stay that way. Once the radiologist marked the spot with an x, I wasn't supposed to move.

Calling the porter and transporting me back to the cancer centre took a good 15 minutes. Then I had to wait for the doctor for about 25 minutes. By that point, my leg cramped painfully. But I held my position. I wasn't going through all this to lose the ideal drainage spot.

The procedure itself was painful. Not necessarily the needle going in (although that wasn't exactly a piece of cake), but the doctor moving it around in my belly to get the ideal spot hurt like a son of a gun. Once the fluid started flowing, the pain dulled to a managable stinging, burning sensation.

The worst part was when the suction pulled an organ up to the needle, and when the flow slowed to a drip and the doc tried to move the needle around to find another pocket of fluid. He must have nicked my intestines (or some other organ) with the end of the needle, because blood started to flow in the bottle and I experience a really sharp pain. By that point, he decided he'd drained enough.

The relief was instantaneous. I could take a deep breath and my very hungry stomach actually made a hollow, growlingy sound instead of a muffled, squished sensation.

Tonight, I feel discomfort where the needle went in and deep in my abdomen (my injured organ?), and I think I'm bruised under my ribs from the inside out. It still hurts to sneeze (so my body actually supresses them) or cough. Hopefully, it's remnants of too many days of being too full and not because I still have too much fluid remaining in me.

I'll continue to fill while the tumours are still present to produce fluid, but the chemotherapy should quickly start to make those nasty interlopers more worried about maintaining their existence than trying to make my life uncomfortable.

Off to Hamilton tomorrow to meet with Dr. H. We'll devise a plan of attack and secure a date (soon, I hope) to start blasting that parasitic cancer.

I'm heading to bed soon. I have to get some good solid shut eye so I can be strong and ready to start the long, uphill battle. But I CAN do it!

Tina