Need Answers About Fluid In Chesat Cavity

Hi, I am Laura and my mom has ovarian cancer 4th stage. We ask the doctors for answers but they can be vague or they say we hope this works. Why has no one got an exact science on this stuff. Mom filled with fluid and we thought she had pneumonia. She had a chest tube done to drain the fluid (how painful) and the doc's said she had an 85% chance that it would seal. Now one month later and 2 chemo's she has another chest tube in to drain the fluid. So the doc's were wrong. I am wondering has any one else gone thru this and how many chest tubes have you had? I am wondering if it wise to go thru chemo and surgery. Will it actually give her more time or take away her quality of life that she has left. There are things she wants to do and see yet. We are looking at 9 months all together. Chemo, surgery, chemo. I want mom to be happy not sick or hurting for the next 9 months and it be fruitless. I need some answers????

Hi, my name is Janis and I have ovarian cancer stage 4. I am 51 years old. I too have had fluid on the lungs, they drained three litres from me. Three weeks later my lungs once again filled with fluid and I was re-admited to hospital where it was once again drained. This time it worked and I have had no more fluid since June 2003. I have since had 6 rounds of Taxol and Carboplatin, two operations and I am currently doing another 6 rounds of the same chemo. If I had not had the operations and chemo I'm sure I would not be here now. There have been some hard times but also a lot of good times. On the whole I feel my quality of life is good and if I had my time over again I would definatley choose to have the treatment. Tell your mom to keep thinking positive and I hope things work out well for her.

Thank you Janis. I needed to know that you also filled up with fluid. We have no one around here with the same syptoms to ask questions. I took my mom for her chest x-ray today to see if the super glue took or not. I don't know the real name so I improvise. Hopefully it did. Mom has one more round of chemo and then a ct scan then surgrey a total histerectomy. It is on her small bowel and the doc's are hoping that it kills it there they do not want to get into that. I am glad you replied. Thank you laura

Janis: The other reply was same as our situation. They call that fluid on the lungs "Pluerl Effusion" and it is a very common symptom stage 3 or 4 of Ovarian Cancer.

My wife and I found this out the hard way through 2 mis-diagnosis. Deb has reduced fluid on both lungs now after 2nd chemo with carboplatin and taxol. Make sure if your mom does chemo to use Anti nausea called Amend or Emend. It was the only one that worked for Deb and we tried about a half dozen before she could keep food down. Also if your mom gets a white blood cell booster shot after chemo make sure to premedicate with Claritin (Antihistamine)to help alleviate deep bone pain issues. I am not a doctor just telling you what worked for us after much trial and error. God Bless and Pray. At Mass this past week the Homily was to not be afraid, that God holds us in his heart. Hoping the best for your Mom.  Allan