Getting Ready for 2nd Chemo Treatment

Mom is looking forward to her second chemo treatment tomorrow (carbo/alimta/avastin). She's on a 3-week schedule and after the 1st treatment, about a week and a half after the infusion, she had a big decrease in the amount of fluid being drained each day from her pleurx catheter. We took it as a very positive sign but then about 3 days ago, the fluid level started increasing. (Could also be the fact that she got a new nurse who is really squeezing every last drop out of her - to the point she's in pain from the lung trying to reinflate on its own - ug.)

The fluid still isn't up to the higher volumes she started out with (typically 500-550ml a day). The fluid hit a low point about 4 days ago of 110ml but is up to about 390ml yesterday.

So she's really looking forward to the next chemo treatment - this time adding avastin for the first time - so she can feel those effects again and hopefully the fluid will go down more. She doesn't have an appetite at all, but I'm working on that. I ordered a whole lot of stuff from Nestle nutrition so I can "doctor" her food and give her smaller amounts of food that pack a lot more calorie/protein whammy. It's the only strategy I can think of where she'll get enough food and I won't have to haggle with her over every bite.

Fluids are hard too. She doesn't like water. She has now decided that juice is too sour, even when I mix just a little in with water. She's drinking mostly milk and weak coffee, but probably not enough. 5-6 glasses a day. From what I understand she really needs about 8-12 glasses, right? sigh.

I've been making soup a lot - pretty much the only thing I can do reasonably well in the kitchen. Split pea soup was a hit and I can add calories to that by melting butter in it and mixing. She loved the taste. I've been using a cookbook called "The Monestary Soup Book" which has nothing but soup recipes in it that even I can follow. I highly recommend it if you're into soups (especially with the Winter coming).

I hear the first avastin infusion takes a long time. They said it could take 90 minutes just to infuse the avastin. Anybody know why?