Hello Good People, recap - was hospitalized from July 17 th through July 22 Nd for something g completely unsuspected or I thought related to upper right lobectomy which included removal of all lymph nodes possible. The Hospital University of Penn discovered the symptoms I had been experiencing for weeks was caused by Pericarditis ,, they tapped severe amount of fluid on the 18 th and watched me and symptoms until my discharge 7/22/18 ,, I followed docs orders and took it easy when I came home,, i didn’t feel great but I didn’t feel terrible like I did prior to tap. July 30 th I woke feeling SOB and fatigue along with bad anxiety hence - palpitations ,, figured, let me just relax and stay out all day with the hopes of feeling better on Tuesday the 31 st, Tuesday came and I still felt like there was something not right going on ,hubby and I had planned on taking our daughter out for dinner along with her boyfriend and a couple of her friends. If there was any way in the world I could have pushed through these scared symptoms in order to help celebrate my baby’s born day, I would have! I called my husband home from work to come get me to bring me to Penns ER, anyone who knows me , knows how out of the ordinary that is for me to do, Well, m friends , when our bodies act out to a point of no control, it’s a sure thing something is wrong!. After many hours and many tests, turns out, I had Severe protein- calorie malnutrition ? My labs showed my CRP levels more than doubled overnight ,, should be 0.8 value and was 17.9 and climbing - Again we are not sure where this all came from, but after another echo cardiogram , they were sure the pain, pressure, SOB etc were not the result of another Pericarditis . Immflammation seems to be the culprit ,, so they started me in high doses of NSAIDS around the clock along with Colchicine once each morning . Cough medicine and told me to rest and keep aware of any new symptoms etc,, so yes, another 4 day stay at HUP. My CRP market has to be checked weekly via blood work ,, follow up with cardio and oncology next week! This was not anticipated or part of the plan moving forward !
Another bump in the road! : Hello Good... - Lung Cancer Support
Another bump in the road!
Scary happenings! I’m glad they are keeping a close eye on you and hoping this all resolves quickly. Cheers to moving forward!!!
What a rollercoaster ride you’ve been on! I imagine you’re feeling a bit of ptsd about now. Was there a lot of fluid around the heart or was it just the severe inflammation?
To be honest, I had to look up the severe protein calorie malnutrition as I had not heard of it before. (It is related to kwashiorkor in children which I learned about in anthropology classes many decades ago). I had no idea it is so prevalent in seniors in the US.
I’m grateful that you live so close to UPenn Hospital. I’ve a friend who travels there for compassionate use of a cancer drug for her GIST and loves UPH. She drives past U Mich to get there!
Denzie,I had no idea what any of this meant until I asked or looked it up,,, the fluid around m hearteas severe and they were almost certain that it was an accumulation over a months span , it absolutely had to be tapped drained,through s lung tube guided with a needle and X-ray as well as an ultra sound , they performed this procedure on me with no twilight anesthesia , 10 pm ,, I was told. Would be under propothol or twilight , and the ER is always extremely packed due to patients being sent from their docs across the street for admittance ,6 hour wait to get a cot inside an Er room , I spent 30 hours in tha Er room a couple of weeks ago when they removed 380 cc of fluid from sac around the heart. When it was done, the cardiology Oncology dept explained that my heart ventricles etc wete literally being crushed explaining why. Was unable to take a full breath and also explained my painful symptoms of pressure, sharp pains, heaviness,,wheezing etc. blood was not flowing properly through heart and valves etc heart was inflamed too , I told my Doc, I would have been pissed if I had cardiac heart failure because having all of the radiation , chemo then lobectomy at stage lll would have been for nothing if my heart was not beating! Haha. My sick sense of humor 😂🤣 Denzie that was July 17 th through July 22 Nd when they discharged me,, Thos past stay was July 31 st through August 3 rd.. the fluid is there but not a lot and shpuld work it’s way out I’m told ,, The inflammation is what’s being treated now along with weekly blood work , they want to get me started on the immunothetapy ASAP but I need to be cleared when I start .
Oh as far as your friend driving here for her medication treatment, I have met so many people who come from all over to be treated at HUP ! I’m very fortunate to live so close 🙏🙏🏻🙏🙏🏻
So the pericarditis did cause a pericardial effusion then. I’m so sorry that happened but glad they’ve taken steps to prevent future damage. Did they leave a hole at the bottom of the pericardium?
A surgery to my back triggered a pericardial effusion in me. I had no idea how sick I was at the time.
Your “sick sense of humor” is great! I like to call it tumor humor. And I love the irony in it.
Glad you’re on the mend!
Yes, I was treated for PE and they did tap most of the fluid out July 18 th , went home on July 22 Nd ,, ended up back in ER July 31 st... They repeated echo cardiogram and discussed the possibility of putting a hole for additional drainage if there wAs another PE so quickly , although there was some fluid , they did not feel it was causing my continued symptoms of SOB , chest pain, pressure and acute pain leaning more towRd the left side of my chest along with added left shoulder nerve pain. I had already been experiencing bad nerve pain in right shoulder from post op. On.. that feels as if it will never go away . I’m really disgusted by all of the heart issues . I honestly think the 30 straight radiation treatments I received prior to surgery along with weekly chemo treatments tore the crap out of my once healthy functioning heart and it’s surroyndong areas! I pray this all finds it’s way out of me and I am given a chance to recover properly from lobectomy! I sometimes wonder if I would have been better off with having all treatments and not the surgery since treatments seemed to shrink and kill 99% of my cancer. These were words straight out of surgeons mouth to my hubby. He spent almost 7 hours operating on me explaining that surgery was tedious because of all of the havoc radiation reaked on my body ( right lung and mediatestinal - he removed all of the lymph nodes he was able to - 21 in all and 1 came back positive for cancer, but of course was removed , Uey, Oncologist who refers to me as a triple * star patient .. does feel immunotherapy is the best treatment for me moving forward.. ,,
I am so sorry you are going through all this. I hope things get better soon.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but you make my crap seem like a cakewalk.
Sometimes our body has it's own plans, we just have to pay attention to the signs.
I hope you are on the road to recovery.
Thank you, I’ll admit, things have not been easy, for me the treatments and all of their nasty side effects were easier to take than all of this additional heartache !
I think I have an idea of what you are going through. There are times I regret having the surgery, but that's just my little pitty party. I am glad the cancer is gone, but 5 years ago when I had my first lung cancer surgery a month after an open abdominal surgery for colostomy reversal, the only issues I had were because the first surgeon sent me home extremely anemic without saying a word (I found out when I went to my PCP because my hair started falling out), and I wound up in the hospital a few times with severe infections, especially after starting chemo. I think the difference for me is they removed the lymph nodes this time, they didn't do that last time.
Just take things one day at a time, pay attention to your body, and repeat after me "this too shall pass"
My 2 mantras are: "It is what it is" and "This too shall pass".
Keep in touch, let me know how you are doing.
Hi Kathernick , I also use the Phrase “ This Too shall Pass” or I say “ “ It could’ve worse”. I’m pretty tough by nature ,,,,, I’ve delt with spinal injuries/ that hospitalized me for more than a month /eventually requiring multiple surgeries ,, from an unfortunate accident at the age of 23. I was riding my 10 speed bike and was hit by a car throwing me 35 feet away from impact,,, I managed to go on and live a pretty active life despite chronic pain etc.. .. I’ve worked from the age of 12 , and always a laborious job which I loved doing! 💚💜 In 2016 I had to take a break from work for another spinal surgery. Was healing beautifully 3 months post op with added light workout, when freak accident occurred in my basement, went to mop up about 10 oz of water with spin mop and before I knew it, My knee was imbedded in the tile! I was still in squatting position ; ( no , I did not fall) what happened was, the mop handle bowed on me , in any event that took a good 17 months to feel as normal as it will ever feel , I shattered my left patella ! Required emergency surgery with wires and screws, that had to eventually be removed because the began poking out of my skin ,,, Seemed like it was never ending ! I did start to feel better and then I was hit with this! Found by accident from an MRI at 8 mm said suspect in mid. August 2017, My primary sent me for an X-ray which I had done ASAP . She didn’t say anything to me about it afterwards. No news is good news right ? Fast forward 4 months to late December 2017 , has been experiencing right shoulder and side pain rib cage area ,, had a fever of 102. 2 for a day, pain was consistent with potential ruptured gallbladder , that’s the only reason I did agree to go to the ER The day after Christmas, well the ER did all tests on me which came back normal for organ involvement , liver,gallbladder kidney , etc,, The ER attending came into room to discharge me but not before telling me I needed to follow up with a CT Scan immediately because they see what they think is a 2.1 centimeter pulmonary nodule on my right lung, I then said ‘“ oh, I have another one?” He said No mamm , we see one. Then it dawned on me,, the 8 mm nodule which I thought was fine, had more than doubled in size,, life has forever changed for not just me but m family as well ! I’m a fighter, my mom used to call me a warrior haha. She had 8 kids and I’m the warrior ,, God Love her! I should add, my mom does of lung cancer 1-11-2009 .. Too late to blame anyone, however, my primary Dr should have followed up more because of my history of tobacco use and my family history of lung cancer. Thanks for listening and thanks for all of your support ! 🙏🙏🏻
I’m a true believer in its many benefits!
Not what you're looking for?
You may also like...
A different kind of survival
NED means I should feel happy, right?
Recovering from a lobectomy
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of my last birthday.
8 months ago perfect lungs, now have a 40mm (4cm) masslike on lung? That fast?
Liver cancer and now suspected lung cancer 
Been wanting to write this for awhile
