This is weird!

Not exactly comforting words from Mary's surgeon. All the things they can measure are just fine yet she is bloated, clearly.

The surgeon (Dr. Visser) and the radiation oncologist (Dr. Chang) studied Mary's CT scan from last night before the Visser saw Mary this morning. His assessment is pretty much the same as last night--the liver is working. New information is that the radiation treatment has pretty aggressively beat up the liver. As expected, its capacity is significantly lessened and the unprocessed fluids are collecting in the abdomen.

While that all sounds good, he admits the symptomology is weird.

As a result, he ordered an ultrasound of the liver for the purpose of finding out if all the fluid flows are working correctly. The possibility (albeit remote) is that the radiation has created some some of blockage (perhaps collapsed duct, vein or artery) and that blockage might be the cause of the fluid in her abdomen. We have been waiting since we saw the surgeon at noon and we just arrived in radiology for her 3:30PM appointment--and we were told we were a 'squeeze in' which is hospitalize for 'prepare to grow very, very old in our waiting area.' You see, we were a 'squeeze in' this morning when we arrived at the requested 9AM. We saw the surgeon at noontime. This is a long day and they are not allowing Mary to eat until they finish the ultrasound.

Mary's surgeon is off on vacation for two weeks so Mary will be monitored by a GI specialist in liver aka hepatologist. And, she is now booked to have more blood work done on Monday as well as a pending appointment with the GI hepatologist. They are worried about her electrolyte balance, given her history, hence the blood test--again.

On a lighter note, Devil Dawg is still up to new tricks. As I noted before, Ingrid brought her home made chicken noodle soup over this week which we had for dinner one night. And, Mary used the leftovers for her lunch the next day. Mary takes a long time to eat and on this particular day, was planning to eat in the master bedroom sitting in her lounge chair eating and watching TV. As she started to eat her lunch, she noticed that Devil Dawg had some light colored matter clinging to her outer lip. Well, Devil Dawg is a living vacuum cleaner and will slop up anything that hits the ground, edible or not, so Mary didn't pay any attention to it. After Mary finished her soup, she removed the item from Devil Dawg's lip--a noodle that could only have come from Mary's soup bowl--before Mary ate lunch. That dawg is quick.