The Start (in hindsight)

11/21/2012. One year ago today, which was the day before Thanksgiving, Dina went and got ‘tapped’ for the first time. She had been home after heart surgery for about 2.5 weeks at that point. Recovery was going well, albeit it a little slower than we had hoped. Dina started noticing her breathing felt different. It was due to fluid accumulation as a result of the surgery. Fluid was common after a surgery like the one she had. The only difference is that because of her radiation as a child she wasn’t able to naturally absorb and process those fluids like other people. This caused the fluid to accumulate around her right lung. On her cardiologist’s recommendation she went to the hospital. They ‘tapped’ her in order to drain the fluid. It was a relatively simple, non-invasive procedure that brought her immediate, albeit short lived, relief. Over the next two weeks she was ‘tapped’ two more times because the fluid continued to accumulate. Finally they decided to bring her back to the hospital to prevent this from happening rather than treating it as it came up. That was December 9, 2013. She never set foot in our home again.