I feel like I might be hijacking this thread at the moment. But a couple of people have asked for an update.
We checked into Prince of Wales private hospital on Wednesday. The drain was inserted into the lung area on Thursday midday and within 1 hour over 2 litres of chylo fluid came out. It took everyone by surprise at how fast it flowed. They asked if some medical students could come and view it, which they did, marvelling at the thick white liquid. The next container filled another 2 litres over that next night.
Mr Ellen10 was on a strict fruit diet, watermelon, honey dew melon and half an orange. And an occasional banana or apple. The aim of the fruit diet was to stop all fats in his body. They were hoping that with no chylo produced through the lymphatic glands/nodes that the leak might heal itself. And they would only have to address the A-Fib which was still of a concern.
Mr Ellen10 kept up a regular walking regime around the ward. We did crosswords, read and chatted to while away the hours, ( I am staying up again in Sydney), he was feeling quite good, just hungry!
By Sunday the flow had stopped completely. I mentioned this to the nurse and she thought it may have had a kink in the drain, so tried to unkink it. Monday morning, was exciting for Mr Ellen10 as they were introducing fats into his diet, A milkshake and ice cream with his fruit breakfast, he said it was the best milkshake he had ever had! The idea of introducing the fats back in to the diet was to see if the chylo would start up again. But there was still no more fluid draining.
Every two days Mr Ellen10 had an X-Ray of the lungs and of course I would peruse it and noticed that the lung cavity was getting a bigger and bigger shadow each day, me thinking it was fluid.
I mentioned this to the nurse, who had another look at the drain and then took the latest X-Rays away for someone else to look at. About half an hour later in walks the surgeon. The experiment had failed, the drain had come loose and stopped draining and the lung area was filling up again. (Which I kind of thought).
Back on the fruit diet, no more milkshakes
Surgery scheduled for today. They would open the chest back up, find the pesky leaking lymph gland/node, seal it and then address the A-Fib problem whilst in there. They took him down at 11am to prepare him for the surgery at 3pm. Anaesthetist was keen to get him down early to prepare everything. Mr Ellen10 will go to ICU firstly. It's about 4.45pm. So no news yet.
was very tender and also strained my thumb. Went back a week or so later then after the 6 months required guilt join I cancelled. Never felt so good. 
