Chemo treatment is a fine balancing act. Their aim is to treat people, whether it's for curative reasons or to improve quality of life during palliative care. It's aim is to benefit the patient, not to make the patient suffer or even kill the patient. You have to meet a certain health criteria to receive chemo and if you don't, the risks heavily outweigh the benefits.

About the tooth infection, chemo lowers your immune system and what we as healthy individuals can shrug off, can quickly turn nasty and life threatening to someone on chemo. Even simple tooth removal for someone that is heavily immunocompromised is risky.

They're needing to let her bloods return to normal, then remove/root canal the tooth. I suspect it will be removal. In the meantime, that tooth needs heavily monitored in case the infection spreads.

Chemo treatment is a fine balancing act. Their aim is to treat people, whether it's for curative reasons or to improve quality of life during palliative care. It's aim is to benefit the patient, not to make the patient suffer or even kill the patient. You have to meet a certain health criteria to receive chemo and if you don't, the risks heavily outweigh the benefits.

About the tooth infection, chemo lowers your immune system and what we as healthy individuals can shrug off, can quickly turn nasty and life threatening to someone on chemo. Even simple tooth removal for someone that is heavily immunocompromised is risky.

They're needing to let her bloods return to normal, then remove/root canal the tooth. I suspect it will be removal. In the meantime, that tooth needs heavily monitored in case the infection spreads.

They have given her antibiotics for the infection which they will keep a close eye on but what worries me is the fluid that has come back very quickly. Is this normal?

Hello and thanks for your further post

Ascites can build up again after the fluid has been drained and normally this would take a few weeks. Hopefully, when your mum is well enough to restart her chemotherapy, the fluid build up will slow down or stop.

Your mum may find it helpful to discuss this further with her specialist team as they are familiar with all her medical details. I wonder if your mum has a specialist nurse (CNS) involved in her care then perhaps they can provide her with further information. You often have to call and leave them a message and they will get back to you.  

Best wishes,

Celene