Yuck

I'm going to need surgery.  I've got a bunch of fluid in my chest again.  This time it's all in the plural cavity around my left lung, and it indicates the cancer is getting more active.  They've drained such fluid twice before by sticking a big needle through my back.  This time they want to go in there, get all the fluid out, see if they can reinflate the lower lobe of the lung, and then use a (talc?) treatment that would cause inflammation of the plural lining and get it to stick to the lung, thereby not allowing any space for fluid to build up in the future.  Something like that anyway...I should be talking to the surgeon early this week.

The rest of the cancer weather-report:  The tumor/activity in my femur remained unchanged. (Stable is not bad news.)  I've a teeny one in my right lung...unchanged.  The one inside my left lung has shrunk a bit in size but has increased in activity.  Two pre-bronchial lymph nodes are unchanged but there is a "hot area" in the soft tissue nearby.  The left plural cavity itself seems to be the site of the most activity right now.

I've been feeling weak and more out of breath on this new chemo and figured it was mostly to blame.  For the weakness, yes...but the other was my old nemesis coming back.  Wonderful.  Anyway, the surgery should make me feel a whole lot better...as they did for me when I was initially hospitalized.  Won't do anything for my cancer though, and we still have to consider where we go with chemo when I recover.