More? Really? Enough Already

I think I've figured out why I'm not posting often.  Because it feels like there is just way too much to tell and I don't have the energy to go through it.  So, I am going to attempt to do this journal style if anyone is wanting to read.  Short posts daily about what is going on.  If nothing else, it'll help me to get it out.

Last night Amy was having trouble taking deep breaths, had some chest pain and was running a fever.  She had a terrible Pleural effusion in October (the Arkansas fiasco) and was in intensive care from it.  So, we kinda knew these symptoms and I was concerned.  So, we went to the VA emergency room after some nudging on my part.  Long story short, they did a workup and she was very dehydrated, had a temp of almost 103 degrees, labs detected infection and her heart rate was 130.  That was the easy part - then they said she has a mild to moderate pleural effusion and see something on the xray that looks like a mass in the lung.  That was there previously in Arkansas, but the biopsy came back negative for cancer when they tested it then.  Our oncologist said sometimes the biopsies don't have enough cells taken to get an accurate reading.  They wanted to admit her, but she didn't want to go.  They gave her a strong antibiotic for the infection and we spoke to her oncologist who said to just really monitor and if she worsens, then bring her back to get admitted.  Besides the scary part of the pleural effusion, the scariest part is the oncologist said there is not a lot that they can do about it if it doesn't get better on its own (which by bringing down the infection, that is what they are hoping).  In Arkansas, they already did a pleurodesis where they chemically treat it and it adheres the lining of the lung against the chest cavity (i think i'm correct in this) and it usually prevents it from happening again.  So, if the effusion gets worse and she gets admitted, I don't know what that means or what they can do.  Really scary stuff.  Sad times for sure and this disease sucks.  More later on.  Just crossing my fingers and hoping she makes an upswing.