A Long Day, but All Done

After a lot of waiting, from 2pm thru 6pm, the radiologist finally freed up to do the pleurodesis procedure for Fiona. Because it was already at the end of the day, they put her at UMMC's observation ward at the Trauma Centre, where there would be someone to observe her after the procedure.

The procedure involved injecting Tetracycline into the pleural space (i.e. the cavity between the chest walls and the lung lining) and leaving it there for 2 hours. The idea was to create sufficient irritation that the lungs would "stick" to the chest wall, thereby sealing off the space and not allowing future accumulation of fluid. They warned us that this was going to hurt a lot, and we were quite concerned, given Fiona's high sensitivity to pain, even with the morphine they would give her. From past experience, we knew that morphine did little for Fiona other than to take the edge of any pain.

It was quite a miracle. During the injecting and the 2 hours of waiting, Fiona felt absolutely no pain, nothing, zip. She even went as far as to question if they had done the procedure at all. We were filled with a sense of wonder. Someone had obviously been praying hard, and our God had answered. We were very thankful.

At the end of the 2 hours, they drained the fluid. Again, no discomfort. Then they took out the tube that had been inserted into Fiona's lung and had been there for the past 2 days, a very uncomfortable and painful thing. She looked quite well at the end of the procedure as they cleaned her up applied a gauze dressing or two.

We finally got home at about 10pm. Tired, but very thankful that it was all over. And still with a sense that God had been at work today, watching over Fiona, and with a sovereign hand to play in the events. Thank you, almighty and gracious God.