5.2 liters

My first night in the hospital was the best night's sleep I'd had in over a week. That morphine is a gift from God. :) I woke up at 6 a.m. to 2 very nice nurses coming to draw some blood. The saline drip overnight must have done something because they got 2 tubes out of my right arm relatively easy. My friend, K, works at the hospital where I was admitted, so she came and sat with me for an hour in the morning while I ate breakfast, which wasn't bad by the way. Another one of my REs, Dr. W, came around 7:30 a.m. with the results of my beta. 51 @ 11dp3dt. Perfect. Damn weak hospital urine PG test - making me worry all night. I immediately called L and told him, since the negative the night before really upset him.

Dr. W and Dr. T came back around 9 to do a procedure called "paracentesis," where they drain the fluid from my abdomen. L and K were both there, as well as 3 doctors, so it was interesting to have a room full of people in the room while this was being done. They gave me 2 shots of Lidocaine to numb my upper right abdomen. Then Dr. W made an incision - all the way through my muscle - and inserted the tube. Then she hooked the tube up to a 1-liter vacuum container. The first container was quickly filled. She just kept switching out containers; the whole process took about 20-30 minutes. After it was all said and done, they had drained 5.2 liters, which was a new hospital record! I felt so proud. :)

I don't really remember what I did the rest of the day after that. I had a couple of visitors, and L and my mom both came over for awhile. I slept A LOT. And I felt so good.