Hope It Doesn't End Up Too Long

As I haven't blogged for a while I will start from when I last wrote in detail which was the morning of Tuesday 2nd Feb.


At the time Judy was being operated on to drain fluid from around her heart, she came through the procedure a little worse for wear but the procedure was far less traumatising than the first time round. Judy really didn't start feeling better until the drain was removed on the Thursday evening by which time they had drained over 2 litres of fluid. The reason for the fluid building up is due to the melanoma being in her heart as it builds up to fight the disease within the heart. She started to feel better as we waited for advice on what would be done to stop the fluid building up in the future. It wasn't until the following Monday that we were finally advised that the plan was to cut a window in the pericardial sac. This is the sac that surrounds the heart and would allow the fluid to drain into the lung cavity.


She had this operation on the morning of Wednesday 10th Feb which happened to be the day that we moved house. This operation went well and included another drain being inserted to keep the area free of fluid while the pericardial sac tried to fuse to the heart with the help of a talc solution. Unfortunately after a couple of days of small amounts of fluid draining she had a couple of days where over 200mls drained which put her in a difficult position as the pericardial sac didn't fuse to the heart which would have resulted in less fluid being produced. This left us in a position of not knowing where we were going as the drain needed to be removed as the chance of infection was increasing each day but to much fluid was draining. Fortunately she had a 24 hour period where the fluid production dropped too next to nothing so the decision was made to remove the drain. This didn't happen until a week after it was inserted with the end result being a further 960mls was drained, while I say a week after this was an extremely difficult time for Judy as she was confined to bed for the full week it is difficult to fully understand how difficult it was.


While the drain came out on the Wednesday 17th Feb, after a couple of days recouperation the doctors didn't think it would be wise for her to come home on the Friday. By the time the new week hit and they didn't let her out on the Monday she was itching the get home as we had nearly been in the new house for just under two weeks. I feel her desire to get home was a factor behind them letting her come home on Tuesday.


So on Tuesday afternoon she finally got to see our house but unfortunately she was lacking energy and was only able to go for a quick tour before resting. She woke up the next morning feeling pretty ordinary and while we thought having a shower would make her feel better we were wrong as she felt terrible after that. It was here that the dhiorrea and vomitting started, fortunately the community nurse was visiting and following a quick call to the palliative care doctor an ambulance was on it's way to take her back to hospital. This was a horrible situation for us all but was the only option as her condition was not good as she struggled to get to and from the loo. The struggle was driven by the fact that she had been bed ridden for all up nearly 5 weeks and her breathing had deteriorated to the point we needed to have an oxygen machine delivered to the house before she came home.


On her return to hospital they gave her a full review for which they haven't solved the dhiorrea problem but did note from the CT scan she had that fluid was starting to build up around her lungs. While the doctor outlined that this could result from a number of reasons it is most likely coming from her heart. This was further backed up by the fact that her heart was enlarged on the scan which is the result of either tumour growth or fluid building up around her heart even though she had the window put in. The fluid build up is also causing concern in other areas of the body but the heart and lungs are the major concern as the feeling is her heart is weak and any fluid build up around the lungs only makes breathing more difficult. The plan is to do more testing on her heart to determine the strength of her heart plus determining if it is fluid building up again. This is the most worrying area as we have been advised that based on the strenght of her heart if she has a cardiac arrest they will not try to resucitate her due to the presence of the melanoma in her heart. The other area is the fluid around the lungs which he advised they could drain this but based on what she has been through over the last 3 weeks they would not like to do this. Fortunately the breathing difficulties can be treated with medication initially.


So overall things are not looking their best as the fluid production will more than likely not stop until the melanoma is not in her heart but she is not strong enough to continue with any chemo to reduce tumour size. While we will try to build her strength back up we are coming from a low base so have a long road ahead that is fraut with huge risks. The initial aim is to stop the runs and get Judy to the stage where she can come home successfully understanding what support would be needed to get her back to a level where she can lead as normal a life as possible.

While we have been settling into the new house and dealing with life in general I will leave these to another time as our greatest area of concern is Judy and the battle that she has faced and has ahead.

I have seen requests for prayers for which we appreciate these as well as many positive thoughts as we move through a very difficult stage.

I will leave it at that for now and hope that it brings you up to date, I can't see Judy being in a position to blog in the coming weeks so I will try to keep you all informed.

Now more than ever NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP