I had my echocardiogram this morning. They found fluid around my heart. He said he wants a CT scan ASAP, and then he said that he wants to be sure there is no cancer - and that's where I kind of lost it. He could see by the look on my face and the tears pouring down my cheeks that the word "cancer" should be spoken carefully around an OC survivor. He then assured me that it's too soon to tell if cancer is involved and tried to ease my mind.

I told him about my two lung biopsies in April and June, my PET scan in May, and that my lung Doc at Shands had just had another chest CT scan done 9/11 that was OK. (This side/chest pain started about 2 or 3 weeks after that.) He got my PCP on the phone and she's going to get that last scan from Shands for him and get another one scheduled, etc. Then he sent me for a full blood workup. I asked if I was still to have the nuclear stress test on Saturday, and he said "We'll see". Then he gave me different pain med - Percocet. I sure hope it works better than the T#3 did.

I googled "fluid around heart" and got a name, peritonitis, or maybe pericarditis. The title of the writing was the first one, but the Dr explaining it kept calling it the second one in his answer. When I read the symptoms it made me wonder why they didn't know right away what it was - I've got all of them. Then again, it's not hard to fit the symptoms to a condition when you already know what the condition is.

I found out why he mentioned cancer, too. It's listed along with kidney failure, AIDS, and tuberculosis as possible causes. This is especially curious to me because my lung Doc, when cancer was ruled out, had suspected a "relative" of tuberculosis. They never did find out what that spot in my lung is - just what it's not. And the upper portion of both lungs biopsied due to "activity" shown in the PET scan - again negative for all things tested. They decided that I have lipoid pnuemonia and are keeping an eye on it, but they had suspected the TB family there, too.

So that's where we stand so far - or should I say lie down, because standing doesn't work very well for me right now. If anyone here has any experience with this, please tell me about it. I was pretty scared this morning but I'm much calmer now. I could use one of those booster shots from Jim, though.

Lani