Recovery from ascites drain?

[Kas68]

Hi all,

I've been a member for a while but this is my first post. My dear mum has ovarian cancer and has been having treatment on and off for five years.

She had a drain before the initial debulking operation back then due to substantial fluid build up, and recovered well.

She has kept very well throughout treatment, and was on avastin for maintenance but it didn't agree with her. She's now on Caelyx, three sessions in.

She had another large build up of fluid during the past two months, and was drained last weekend, which bought relief, but seems to be struggling to recover from this.

Can anyone share their experiences of this please? Mum has been advised to take paracetamol which helps, and was initially not too bad, but she's now uncomfortable again.

Does it normally take a long time to recover from the drain? Any thoughts most welcome, thank you for listening.

[Caroles1]

Hi Kas,

To be fair, I was drained, then had my debaulking and aggressive hysterectomy, so, I took a while to recover,but that was probably from the op.

If she is still in discomfort, could she have another build up of liquid?, mine was in pockets and even when I was drained once, had to go back as the fluid was in a different place.

Maybe she could be re examined to make sure they got it all.Anyway if she stays uncomfortable I think it would be worth making another appointment to be seen

Carole xx

[Susan3]

Hi

When I was diagnosed first I was drained and very unwell for two weeks after , was told that was due to the massive fluid shift that occurs after drain as body tries to rebalance itself . Wish your mum a speedy recovery

[baxbird]

I had numerous drains when first diagnosed, and yes it's takes a while to settle.

I think it might have something to do with the amount of fluid build up there is. Like others have said, I had different pockets of fluid. I was almost aware of my organs moving back to where they should have been after they got pushed out of the way by the fluid ( sorry too graphic). Will she be seeing her oncologist soon, or CNS. If nothing else it might put her mind at rest to have a chat with them.

Hope it all settles soon for her

Dawn xx

[Kas68]

Thank you for your replies; mums waiting for an appointment and has been in contact with the ward nurses where she was last week. She has more Chemo in a couple of weeks too, hopefully she will start to feel better soon x

[Maus123]

I had 5 liters of fluid drained 10 days before the initial debulking surgery and felt nothing but relief to be honest. Was 46 at the time, if age makes a difference, and have not experienced it since but am aware it could return anytime since I'm not NED.

Hope your mom recovers soon and the relief starts to outweigh the after-effects of the draining because that's what it's meant to do. If not, you might want to keep seeking advice from the medical team to make sure there's nothing else going on.