Fluid in Lungs

minibull
minibull Member Posts: 56 Member
in Lung Cancer #1
I'm on the colon cancer board but I have a concern about my friend who was DXed with stage 4 lung 3 yrs. ago. She has been on chemo on and off since then and recently has had RFD done at our local hospital. The day after the procedure, she had difficulty breathing and went to ER. It appears that fluid had built up in her lungs. Drs say it was not pneumonia or cancer related but have not given any reason for it. The only thing they did was drain her lungs and her breathing was helped. Anybody have anything similar happen? Thanks for your help - I'll relay any/all info to her.

Comments

  • dennycee
    dennycee Member Posts: 857 Member
    #2
    i had fluid drawn from my
    i had fluid drawn from my pleural cavity twice before they put in a tube to drain it regularly. Mine was related to the cancer though. I tried to do some research but I am stumped. Could you tell me what an RFD is?
  • minibull
    minibull Member Posts: 56 Member
    #3
    dennycee said:

    i had fluid drawn from my
    i had fluid drawn from my pleural cavity twice before they put in a tube to drain it regularly. Mine was related to the cancer though. I tried to do some research but I am stumped. Could you tell me what an RFD is?

    RFD
    I think I may have gotten the alphabets wrong. The procedure is radio frequency ablation where the tumor are supposedly blasted with radio waves (?) or some sort of laser burning. Drs. use this to blast the larger tumors, then treat the smaller ones with chemo. She seems to be breathing better but to this day none of her doctors know why she had fluid accumulation in her lungs. They're all pointing fingers at one another but no one knows why the fluid occured.
  • dennycee
    dennycee Member Posts: 857 Member
    #4
    minibull said:

    RFD
    I think I may have gotten the alphabets wrong. The procedure is radio frequency ablation where the tumor are supposedly blasted with radio waves (?) or some sort of laser burning. Drs. use this to blast the larger tumors, then treat the smaller ones with chemo. She seems to be breathing better but to this day none of her doctors know why she had fluid accumulation in her lungs. They're all pointing fingers at one another but no one knows why the fluid occured.

    Wow, this is something that
    Wow, this is something that has come up from time to time but, in all honesty, I know nothing about it other than you were very close with those letters, I think it is called RFA. (Cancer survivors live in an alphabet soup world.)

    I can tell you that fluid accumulation in the pleural cavity or lungs is quite common in stage 4 lung cancer. The fluid is usually biopsied. In my case they did a vats surgery because I also had fluid in my pericardium. At that time they took a sample of the pleural tissue which they biopsied. They found 3 necrotic cancer cells and I credit the chemo with preventing that from getting worse.

    It concerns me that her docs are finger pointing about a common side effect of the cancer. Your friend should be seeing an oncologist who specializes in lung cancer. Is this something you can comfortably talk to her about?
  • pokismom
    pokismom Member Posts: 153
    #5
    Hi mini bull,
    How are you?
    Hi mini bull,
    How are you? Been a while huh? I had RFA done three times in my lungs at ucla, no water though, I know they were concerned about lung collapsing so I had to watch for that. I don't know if that helps but I'm surprised they're doing it here. Take care
    Donna

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