I just didn't feel up to writing in the blog yesterday.
I was so hopeful that things were going well. But this chylothorax has really become quite an issue. The Octreotide has not seemed to slow the output at all, if anything it's increased. They decided they wanted do an echocardiogram because they thought that perhaps a heart issue was contributing to the large amount of fluid output. They went ahead and put him back on the Milrinone (one of his heart meds). They also started him on Viagra. They are hoping if there is an issue with his heart these medications will help fix that and therefore slow down the fluid output.
They said if the output has not decreased significantly by Tuesday that they want to do the pleurodesis. They now say that they would do the pleurodesis on both sides at the same time. It is a very painful procedure and would cause him to not breath on his own because of the pain, so he would have to be put back on the ventilator. It causes the lungs to stick to the chest walls (permanently!). That is supposed to stop the fluid from accumulating. But it can also not work and the fluid could begin to accumulate around the heart or in the stomach instead. That is a very scary prospect because if that happens there is no other surgery they can do to stop the fluid.
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