Pleural Effusion & Pleural Tap

For the past few months till now, I have been struggling to cope with aches and pains from rheumatism on the right shoulder, muscle pulls and cramps on the back and thighs and pain on the lower back.

I struggled to lie down and I struggled to turn in bed.  I struggled even more to get up.  Sometimes the pain was too much that I needed a family member to help pull me up.  I was not sleeping well.  It was also an effort to either sit down or stand up.  I had to be extra careful go slow when alighting from buses as my lower back hurts.

I was dependent on painkillers and the times that I have to leave home, I brought painkillers with me.

I also noticed that I have a lot of phlegm, followed by breathlessness and now coughing, a sure sign that my chest is flooded again.

Nov 3 2011, I went to the National Cancer Centre's emergency walk-in clinic.  The doctor ordered blood test and x-ray.  The x-ray confirmed that the pleural space of my left chest was half covered in fluid.  I thought it a little strange as my problem area is my right side and the last time it happened, usually it was my right pleural space that was flooded first.  Anyway, at least I have the right lung free to let me breathe.

Nov 4 2011, the attending doctor did a pleural tap, using a syringe, and drew 850 ml of fluid from my left pleural space.  This doctor was not as experienced as the one I had in 2008.  She gave me a few doses of local anaesthetic but was unable to find a spot to insert the syringe.  I had been having pain on the left side of my back around the ribcage area and I suspected that the area was swollen.  She commented that my ribs were so close together that she could not find a gap.  When she finally tried to insert the syringe, I felt pain despite the anaesthetic.  She stopped immediately and called a senior doctor to help.  By the time she was done with the tapping, my chest felt tight and I was breathless and coughing, and I had to be given oxygen.

I had several chest taps done in 2008, and I do not remember having tight chest feeling nor coughing, and I also did not need oxygen then.  I remembered the doctor had said that the procedure had to be done real slow and steady or the patient will feel discomfort.

The chest tap gave me temporary relief and the flooding is expected to be back as long as the cancer cells are running wild.