[tri-med] Re: New problem...fluid in chest cavity

Irene,
There have been discussions, from time to time, about chylothorax.  This is=
 a hole in the thoracic duct.  Morgan was "lucky" enough to have this post =
operative complication when he was just a tiny baby.  He had thoracic surge=
ry to repair a t.e. fistula and esophageal atresia.  Usually a chylothorax =
is found to be a surgical complication, the surgeon accidentally nicks the =
duct.  The hole causes chyle, the fluid carried by the thoracic duct, to ac=
cumulate in the chest cavity.  When this happened with Morgan we had no ide=
a what was going on (he was still in the NICU, as he was only a couple of w=
ks. old.)  He started breathing heavily and having apnea episodes that the =
drs. just attributed to his trisomy.  He was sent to have an xray to see ho=
w his surgery was healing when they discovered the fluid accumulated in his=
 chest.  The next thing they did was to draw some of the fluid out and have=
 it analyzed to see what it was.  When it was determined to be chyle they k=
new the culprit was a chylothorax.  It does eventually heal, although it ca=
n take several weeks.  I don't know if this has anything to do with what is=
 going on with Caroline, but it might be worth asking about it.

"Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I a=
m merely in disguise."
Margaret Atwood

Holly --  wife of Mike, mom of Morgan (7 yrs.), partial t18q & partial mono=
somy 9p (unbalanced translocation)
mommy to Bonnie (border collie/spaniel mix) and Clyde (gray kitty)

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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