Trouble Breathing and Uncertainty

We made it down to Houston late last night.  We went into the pulmonary clinic at MD Anderson at 7:30 this morning.  We let them know that Shawn’s left lung catheter was clogged and he was short of breath.  They did a chest x-ray.  They looked at the chest x-ray and said that the fluid in his lung was loculated - meaning that it is too thick to be drained.  After that, we waited.  

When we finally spoke to an actual pulmonologist, he said he didn’t believe the lungs were the issue.   He had Shawn do an echocardiogram (a sonogram of the heart).  After looking at the echocardiogram, the pulmonologist said he believed it was a heart issue and called in a cardiologist. He was afraid there was fluid around his heart.

They took a second echo and said that it only showed 1 of the 4 signs of fluid around the heart.  So, they think that is not the issue.  They did a thoracentesis to drain the left lung, but they were only able to drain 300 ml.  They removed the catheter from his left lung.  Therefore, I am not sure what the plan is with that lung 3 days from now.  As you might remember, we drain about 800 ml off that lung each day.  

Shawn is retaining lots of fluid in his legs.  Because of that symptom, the doctors are speculating that the shortness of breath might be because of a retention of fluid that is impacting the lungs. He was given lots of fluids when we were in the hospital last week and they think that might be the problem.  They are admitting him to the hospital. The plan is to give him a diuretic and monitor him. If his shortness of breath is due to being over-hydrated, that is the best case scenario.  However, they are not sure.  So, they want to do a CT scan of the chest to understand exactly what is happening.  We have been at the hospital today for over 16 hours with no end in sight.  

I think we are going to be here for some time.

Please pray they continue to work this out and Shawn is able to breathe. It is affecting his sleep (which has been very little for days), his anxiety and his eating.  We are in a bad spot right now because we don’t know what is happening.   But we know God is good.