The doctor removed the fluid at about 10:30 a.m. They did the procedure in the room with a local anesthetic and took out 5 bottles (500cc each) of fluid – close to a gallon. She started to feel a little discomfort and then they stopped draining. They left a little bit in her abdomen just to keep the buffer between her organs. It was definitely easier for her to breathe without all of that pressure.

They were going to send the fluid to a lab somewhere in the Quads that had the equipment to analyze the pathogens to determine what was in the fluid and maybe how/why it was filling in her abdomen. The fluid was light yellow in color, kind of clear, not very cloudy. Dr. said that since there was no visible blood color, that was a good sign (however does not mean that there isn’t blood in there). He also said that they could find malignant cells in the fluid, which would indicate that cancer was growing somewhere inside her abdomen. More testing would confirm what the fluid contained. Mom had malignant cells in the back of her mind, but still wanted to keep an open mind and see what the test results would bring.

I went down to the cafeteria and brought her back a chicken salad sandwich. She ate the whole thing and enjoyed it. With all of the pressure gone, she had plenty of room in her stomach now for food.

They decided to keep her overnight again just to be sure that she didn’t go into shock from the fluid being removed. That was fine by me, and I felt better knowing that she was around people who could respond if something happened. They thought that they would have the results back the next day.