Pleural effusion Puns

How to differentiate?

This morning I picked up my cat (5 years old, ragdoll), and when I set him down he started wheezing loudly as if he was going to throw up. He seemed fine after. He is completely "normal".. eating, drinking, bathroom.. playing, etc. I took a shower and when I came out saw him laying and the way his side moved was very jerky and odd. My husband and I decided to be safe so I took him to an emergency vet. At first, she said she assumed it was asthma but recommended an x-ray to be sure. When she came back she said he actually has pleural effusion. She said they will take some fluid out to assess the cause but we are at home waiting for a phone call.

She said she is thinking most likely caused by pneumonia... his brother, Phoenix, was very sick a few weeks ago. Phoenix has feline herpes and gets sick all the time but this was pretty bad so he went to the vet, got meds, and is better. I noticed a week or two after Phoenix was sick Leon was a bit sneezy but otherwise entirely fine so I did not get him checked out. He hasn't sneezed lately either. She thinks he probably got pneumonia which spread to make the fluid.. she also thinks it's more likely pneumonia because he had a fever as opposed to a heart condition which would be a low temperature. She said it would be "better" if it is not a heart issue.

I'm so so worried for Leon. I adore him and he is so special to me. Reading online is even worse and scarier... the vet did say (after I asked about success rates) 50% of cats she sees with this pass away in the first 24 hours... however she said Leon is in much better shape than most cats she sees with it. Usually cats are oxygen dependent and very ill... Leon is completely "normal", eating, drinking, and breathing without need for oxygen. So I think we were lucky to have noticed very early and decided to be cautious. Most things I see online point to him not making it though.

It also sounds like it's very expensive. She didn't go over all three treatment options thoroughly (since we are not sure the cause until they pull fluid) but if it is from pneumonia she said he may have to stay a week with tubes in his chest to remove fluid and it could be 5-7k. She said success from that is 80% but surgery is more successful (she did not mention cost). She said there are outpatient options but seemed to think that was not a good way to go.

I don't know what I'm asking at the moment. Venting and maybe just some advice or things you have seen similar and what we should e

Long story short, one friend has lung cancer and gets his lungs drained of the fluid. A different friend wants a sample of the fluid just to have as they collect strange things, and the friend with cancer agreed. I am just curious if there are any exposure or health risks to the weird friend that wants to receive the liquid. It will be in a sealed container, no one will touch it directly or drink it but I am still curious. Thanks!

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Hi everyone,

I was wondering if any of you have experience with NHL and pleural effusions. My 64-year-old mother was recently diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, stage 2; however due to the aggressiveness of her disease, her oncologist has opted to treat it as if it's DLBCL. Possibly what was FL has transformed into DLBCL? She begins 6 cycles of R-CHOP next Friday.

The area around her lungs had been drained twice before her initial diagnosis, and we know that the fluid is filling up again. Have any of you had a thoracentesis after starting chemo? Does having fluid around the lungs complicate chemo in any way? Is the hope that the nodes start to shrink and the fluid, with the help of diuretics, drains without additional intervention?

Thanks for any insight you can give!

Health and Well-being.

We received a very shocking diagnosis for our 2 Year Old, Shetland Sheepdog. She has been experiencing a harder time breathing and and the vet originally thought it was Bronchitis. After a few weeks nothing went away so we brought her back, and had to get X-Rays. We were told the X-Rays were shocking and show very advanced Plural Effusion. We were told the causes could be a long list and the prognosis is not good. We hoping to have someone also take a look at the X-Rays, and maybe hope to explain them. As well as what the recommended next steps would be in terms of tests, treatments as well as what a best guess of a likely cause is. (Understanding it could be many)

Species: Dog - Shetland Sheepdog

Age: 2 years

Sex/Neuter status: FN

Breed: Shetland Sheepdog

Body weight: 23 lbs currently

Here are the X-Rays

https://imgur.com/a/l6eQqCj

Blood Results will be in on Monday.

Thanks.

Noticed I write PE everywhere without specifying and sometimes the context isn’t enough to tell what I mean

Female , 44 5’6” 180lbs Asthma Celiac Disease Depression Post traumatic stress disorder Psoriatic Arthritis

I currently take

Amitriptyline Celexa Subcutaneous methotrexate Simponi

Last Tuesday I had a small bowel study done It was ordered by my gastroenterologist as they suspect inflammatory bowel disease

My gp wanted an urgent follow up but had no idea why he wanted a follow up when we had my appointment.

Do I need to find someone else to follow up with or are findings non emergent?

Here is the results:

CT Enterography) CHRONIC ABDOMINAL PAIN AND NAUSEA. NORMAL EGD AND GASTRIC EMPTYING STUDY. R/O SB STRICTURE

Report PROCEDURE: CT Enterography

CLINICAL INDICATION: CHRONIC ABDOMINAL PAIN AND NAUSEA. NORMAL EGD AND GASTRIC EMPTYING STUDY. R/O SB

STRICTURE

TECHNIQUE: Contiguous enhanced axial images of the abdomen and pelvis utilizing a single phase enterography study.

COMPARISON: CT KUB July 18, 2020

FINDINGS: Poor distention of the small bowel loops limits assessment. Within these limits, no regions of bowel wall thickening, mucosal hyperenhancement or surrounding inflammatory change are identified within the gastrointestinal tract. No bowel mass is identified. Uncomplicated diverticula of the proximal transverse colon.

There are a few scattered 2-3 mm hypodensity in the left hepatic lobe too small to characterize, but likely reflecting cysts.

Gallbladder is collapsed, but unremarkable.

Pancreas, spleen, kidneys, adrenal glands, urinary bladder are unremarkable. Heterogenous enhancement of the myometrium. No discrete myometrial lesion.

No adenopathy. No free air or free fluid. Visualized abdominal vasculature is within normal limits.

There remains a small right pleural effusion. Lung bases are clear. No focal aggressive osseous lesion.

IMPRESSION: There is minor uncomplicated proximal transverse colonic diverticulosis. Otherwise, no abnormality of the gastrointestinal tract is identified.

Persistent small left pleural effusion of uncertain etiology.

• note the left right pleural effusion confusion in the reporting

My gp booked an urgent follow up after this, and then had no idea why he booked. Should I find another doctor to follow up with?

I (29F) had a PET scan on friday (for lymphoma), and I have a moderate pleural effusion.
It's affecting me: it's painful, I can't wear bras without getting heartburn, I'm starting to cough and I'm tired all the time from the reduced air. I didn't realize that it was the pleural effusion at first, but after the scan I realized this feels the same as when I had another (major) pleural effusion at the start of April. (It was 3200ccs. My heart and trachea were being pushed to the right side of my body).

However, I live in a rural area. My PCP's clinic doesn't do drainages and they tell me that I have to go to a pulmonologist or an interventional radiologist for a drainage. The local urgent care doesn't do drainages. My oncologist is an hour away, and she says we can "talk" about draining the effusion this upcoming friday.

So, my only options are either waiting for days, or going to the ER. The ER is where I went for my first pleural effusion.

After my first effusion was drained, my blood pressure dropped abruptly and I spent 6 days intubated in the ICU. So, I really want this current effusion drained before it reaches that point. I don't know how quickly pleural effusions usually grow, and I don't want to wait for days and end up needing another ICU stay. But I'm also not sure if it is severe enough right now for the ER.

Should I go to the ER, or try to wait longer?

hi again i just got my xray result back and it says “probable miniman pleural effusion” im on my 5th month treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis and it says in the xray that my tb is clearing

but what is this effusion??? what should i do?? what are the foods that i should avoid if i have this?

My cat was diagnosed with pleural effusion on one side of his chest on Friday. They tapped it and sent in the fluids for testing but with the long weekend the results could be delayed until Tuesday. I had to bring my guy back in on Saturday to get more fluid drained and there was fluid now on both sides. He is 10y and was always healthy. The vet was concerned seeing the fluid yesterday because it had built up so fast and said to start considering making the hard decision to put him to sleep. The vet sent us home with antibiotics but no other meds. This morning, Sunday, he seemed to be doing better - was eating and breathing normally. Now this afternoon I can see his chest working harder to breathe. I was hoping I’d get some results back so I could make an informed decision but now I am worried that he is in a lot of pain and I don’t know what to do. Has anyone had a similar experience? I would hate to end his time without having all the information but at the same time I don’t want him to be in pain. I don’t what to do and It’s so hard to know how or when to make the decision to end his possible suffering. If I knew he had no good chance of recovery this decision would be so much easier but without that I feel like I’m failing him.

Sorry for the long post. Just couldn't stop myself from sharing the pain we are going through. :-(

I live overseas - away from my dad and hoping to see him in next couple of months.

A little story of him :-(

Due to his age (75) and an unhealthy lifestyle (non-smoker, non-drinker but mostly office job throughout his life with no exercise and had always been eating greasy and spicy food) he had developed many diseases.

- Had a life threatening Peptic Ulcer in his late 20s/early 30s but was treated with a surgery, and never occurred again.

- Started suffering with Arthritis in both knee joints in his early 40s and it gotten worse years by years. It had been worse after crossing 65 age, almost made him immobile by the time he reached 70; and is completely immobile since past 1 year.

- Suffered with Hypertension in his early 50s for almost 5 years.

- Developed Diabetes in his late 50s which was completely under control till he reached in his 70s but gotten worse since last couple of years.

- Had to go through an Angioplasty. It wasn't on the main Arteries or Veins though when he was 70.

Around 6 months ago, he complained that he's been feeling sweaty, tired, shaky, weak, confused, lack of apatite and mostly sleepy. He lost around 5 kg in 1 month. His blood and diabetes reports said his Hemoglobin was dropped down to 7 g/dL; and Diabetes was fluctuating - it was dropping down to 50 mg/dL (mostly in the mornings) and on the same day it would rise up to 300+ mg/dL. After a couple of months' treatment he started feeling ok. His Hemoglobin rose up to 11.5 g/dL; however, Diabetes was still fluctuating but mostly ok; also he gained 3-4 kg back.

Now, since last 2 months he again complained about loss of apatite and the symptoms like weakness, loss of interest in doing things, and mostly sleeping were same as 6 months ago so we all kept thinking that his Diabetes issue has started re-occurring but this time the addition was - the shortness of breathing.

A month ago, the doctors suggested a chest X-Ray but we faced a death of a close family member so he didn't perform the X-ray for few weeks. The breathing situation now started getting worse. On 27th March, he got chest X-ray and other blood reports done. His right lung showed intense amount of fluid built up that we could barely see any ribs. On 1st April doctors drained ~1.5 L fluid from his lungs and performed a Cytology on the fluid. On 2nd April Cytology came back as "?Metastatic/?Mesothelial" cells

Hello. My mother has stage 4 ..(initially stage 2 now 4) She initially had a distal pancreatectomy/splenectomy, folforinox, and after stage 4 gem/abrax.

As of today her sugars are in the high 270s, (with insulin, metformin etc) even though shes not really eating a lot (but she is eating) She has substantial sugar in urine. She has pain from the back to the front. She went in for scans yesterday and they found double infiltrate pneumonia and pleural effusion. They are starting oral antibiotics and lasix .

Is this a complication that is considered end stage of PC? Can the pneumonia be cured with that treatment? I live at a distance and am leaving tomorrow to get to her, but I was seeking information as I do not want to ask her too many questions and upset her.

Thank you for any helpful info you have. I am trying to prepare myself but not sure where to begin. Thanks friends

EDIT: I just clarified with my sister—it isn’t a plural effusion, but infiltrate with fluid in the lungs. Idk of that makes a difference

Thanks

I'm not sure how clear the question is, but here goes:

So, in lobar pneumonia, microbes get into the lungs, start an inflammatory response, and this attracts fluid, right? So there is congestion in the lobe of the lung because fluid has accumulated. I get that the blood vessels become very full, and so do the alveoli, so I get why exudate would come out of the vessels. But I don't understand why "red hepatization" of the lungs occurs - why have red blood cells also come out? When pretty much the same thing happens in pleural effusion - when pulmonary hypertension leads to pleural effusion - the fluid isn't red? How come red blood cells leak out in one case, but not the other?

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