chest pain? water on the heart?
 

I had chest pain. had a sonogram that showed some water on the heart. Anyone had this or know anything about it?
thanks

not sure what you are referring to but perhaps...
 

Perhaps you mean water in the lining AROUND the heart. It is called
pericarditis. Just imagine someone put a ziplock bag filled with water
around your heart. The water ( or blood) pressure outside the heart would make it
hard for the heart to expand when the blood fills it. The heart is like a three dimensional rubber band, like a balloon. The tension in the rubber, or in this case the muscle fibers when stretched contributes to its ability to push out the blood it contains when it contracts of beats. It makes the work of the heart harder and the heart less efficient.

Pericarditis is a rare complication of herceptin listed in the "package insert"

more common is "water on the lungs" due to heart failure, when the pressure
caused by the left side of the heart's not being able to push/pump out all the blood it has in it(ie, in the direction of the body) causes it to back up into the lungs.

This is more commonly diagnosed on a chest xray.

Treatment for pericarditis might include sticking a needle in and draining it
vs treatment for heart failure usually involves things like Lasix to cause you to urinate out a lot of fluid to help allow the heart back-up to be relieved so it can beat and pump more efficiently.

Hope this helps!

Got to go, so not available soon for more info...

I know what you mean
 

I had pericarditus but there was no mention of water on the heart, for that matter they didn't know what I had but it wasn't a heart attack. I had this when I finished AC rads and CMF, I thought that would be right, survive the chemo and then croak it with a heart attack. To me the sack around the heart was like cling wrap that you wrap your sandwhiches in and clings to the heart causing the pain, I had the pain generating up my neck and it was mighty uncomfortable, and mimicked a heart attack, mine was treated with antibiiotics Keflex. Then I had heart failure 2 years back and that was when my heart was pumping backwards and filled my lungs with fluid, 5kilos to be exact, I had a scan and they tried to tell me I had lung mets, I had a recent tumour marker done so I knew I didn't, anyway I survived that and it wasn't caused by the herceptin, it was from thyroid treatment, apparently I was suppose to die they told my sister, good thing they didn't tell me or I might have. The heart pumps out and when it isn't working it pumps backwards into the lungs because the valves malfunction and then the heart either stops altogether or barely works, so not really possible for fluid to get past the pumping mechanism into the heart. Hope this makes sense.

Hugs Lyn

Thanks Lyn and guest,
Interestingly I did have fluid on the lungs about a year ago but as far as I know that cleared up and no one seemed concerned at the time - I'd had trouble breathing and a Perscan done for cancer showed the fluid.
Interesting about the antibiotic - this is a country that loves to prescirbe them but it wasn't suggested to me. however hte cardiologist to my surprise hadn't heard of Herceptin which is worrying.
did you have to stop Herceptin until it cleared up or not?
I think I'll check with another cardiologist!
all the best to you
Sarah

Hi Sara, no I didn't have to stop Herceptin, even when I was in heart failure my Left Ventricle was still above 50% so it has never been a problem. My problem was getting out of one hospital to get my treatment at the other so I missed about 2 weeks. I keep the antibiotic Keflex in the cupboard at all times, if I have the slightest inclingling that something is a miss I take 2 stratight away and if necessary I will see the doctor but usually a course of them gets rid of it, I told my onc that it is a drug that covers a multitude of complaints, so he keeps giving me the scripts when I need them, so does my doc. I had a lot of bladder infection on some of the chemos, so it was better to get on top of it before it got unbearable. Hope this helps.

Love & Hugs Lyn

My mom just underwent surgery to remove the fluid around her heart and in her lungs in July.

She was not having problems breathing, it was diagnosed through a CT scan. We went to the cardiologist to have an echocardiogram done, this is the gold standard for determining if fluid needs to be removed around the heart. Turns out she was in pre tapandas (sp??), this is when the fluid puts pressure on the heart so it has problems pumping. She went in to have the fluid drained and a "window" done in the lining. The take out the pericadium lining in a square, this way no fluid will ever build up again. During surgery the lung was also drained. She was under when they did this and had to stay in the hospital until the fluid stopped draining and the tube could be removed. This length of time differs for everyone. She has been fine, and test results came back negative on the fluid, which means it wasn't from her cancer, probably a side effect from chemo or Herceptin.

Thank you all again for all this helpful information. What a great site and how reassuring to have people like you out there who can answer our questions and worries.
I see my oncologist next week and will ask him about all this as well as the chemo docs. Glad to hear I shouldn't have to miss the Herceptin, you know how much we rely on it.
Lyn, does Keflex have a "generic" name in case it's not known here in France by that name? can you check the bottle for me. Thanks. I'll also check the www.mayoclinic.com site - it should list it.
However the cardiologist mentioned the cause as possibly viral not bacterial - of course if I tried it, it would work or not.
Thanks again. and best wishes for better health for all of you.
sarah

checked Mayo Clinic site for pericarditis (seems definitely what I had) and for the drug Zeflex. starting using 200 mg ibuprofen and now 4 days since taking ibuprofen, pain seems to have gone. don't know if it's just time or the ibuprofen that helped but happy about that. will get a followup check up in a month to be sure. thanks to all of you I at least got an idea of what I had!