My mom just had this proceedure on Monday. She had 660cc of fluid in the sac around her heart and 1100cc in each lung drained by a surgeon. She is recovering well but needs to stay in the hospital until they remove the drainage tubes. She is sore but hopefully now from the talc in the lungs she will not ever have to do this again. My mom had fluid in her lungs about 2 years ago and it was not cancerous, however since it came back they decided to treat her with the talc anyway, before they new these new results. Please pray for us that there is no cancerous cell in either lung or heart fluid for her, thanks!!!!
As for the heart they did a "window" where they take a piece of the pericardium tissue and now fluid should never build up there again. The surgeon said everything looked good, no apparent evidence of mets but we still have to wait for cytology, fingers crossed!!!
The surgeon was amazed that with 3 liters of fluid she was still up and about with very little breathing problems, she is one tough cookie, boy do I look up to her!!!! Hope this info helps and just wanted to share her story!!

Huggs,
Kristin

She may be slow for a few weeks, but she will continuously improve. My worse days are when the air pressure changes. Not rain, not sunshine but wind. It feels like a heart attack about to happen. I hope her doctor explained this to her. It DOES improve with time. It's been 10 months since my surgery and it has to be a nearly a hurricane before it feel the pressure on my lungs now. Glad all went well. Remember - pain killers when they pull the tubes!! It's not horrible, but why should your mom have to suffer any unnecessary pain if she doesn't need to? I am glad to hear she is doing well. God Bless.