06 February 2009

Day 8

The thoracic surgeon finally met with Dad the other day and he will be performing a pleurodesis today. This procedure will hopefully eliminate the space for fluid build up in the pleural sac. The procedure is 60-70% effective and the doctor will know within a day if it will work for Dad. (Like we've been told, every patient is different!) Dad will be in the hospital at least one to two days after the procedure barring any complications.

Dad has had radiation treatments at the cancer center every day this week and has one today too. He will have about 14 shorter treatments to come. Dad has been getting some nausea with the treatments this week and has been getting more tired throughout the week-he's been falling asleep about an 1/2 hour to an hour earlier each night. Last night, he was cat napping whenever any of us stopped talking.

A new round of student nurses came through yesterday and Dad had one assigned to him. She took his vitals, checked him out from head to toe and got him up to walk before dinner arrived. Dad was not hungry when dinner arrived, but was more interested in sleeping. So we let him sleep and took Mom to get some dinner.

I'll update here later today when I know more about how the procedure went.

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