If fluid has built up in either your pericardial or pleural spaces, cancer cells growing on their linings is the most likely reason, but other possible reasons include infection and bleeding. The fluid can be examined under the microscope to find out why it has formed. If it is due to cancer, ways of trying to stop it reforming are the same as for fluid in the abdominal cavity (ascites).

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While you are still on the ward, you will be given your ‘pre-med/, if you are to have one, and any medicines you normally take. You will then be taken to the operating theatre, probably on a hospital trolley. You may go first into the anesthetic room or straight into the operating theatre to be given your anesthetic.

The anesthetist, or an assistant, will ask you several questions to confirm your identity and make sure that you are the right person in the right place. Your identity bands will also be checked. Many people have many types of operations each day in a hospital, and these checks, which may be repeated, are essential to make sure no mistakes are made.

The anesthetist will then fit various monitoring devices to watch over you while you are asleep. A probe may be attached to your finger to measure the amount of oxygen in your blood; some sticky pads may be put on your chest so that your heart beat can be recorded on an electrocardiograph; and a cuff may be put around your arm to measure your blood pressure. All these monitoring devices enable the anesthetist to make sure that the anesthetic remains effective and that you remain well during surgery.

A plastic cannula will be put into a vein in the back of your hand, and any drugs will be introduced into your body through this.

Once the anesthetist is happy with the readings from the monitors, your anesthesia can start.

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