My brother through drink is suffering from ascites. He is on 2 weekly drains and blood transfusions. At the last drain they did not drain it all out, left my brother bloated and one week later he is begging the hospital for another drain. I wonder if this is the next stage. He averages 4 liters a week.

My symptom of ascites is swollen left side around the waist after eating.

My ascites was the result of stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It came on over a two week period until I looked about 7 months pregnant. It was the last symptom leading to my diagnosis. A tube attached to a drainage bag was inserted into my abdomen. I wore the bag for 4 months, emptying it twice a day. In the first month alone we hit 22 liters as the lymphatic fluid was rampant. It took a couple of rounds of chemotherapy before there started to be a decrease in its accumulation and by the end of treatment I went back to normal. I have had no re-occurrence of either the ascites or the lymphoma, and live life to the fullest.

Besides the stomach bloat and pain I have had problems with vomiting. I have a bad heart and other problems so it took my doctor a while to figure out why I could not keep food down. At the initial 6 months of the ascites I was puking up almost everything I ate about every other day. I lost 55 pounds which was nice but any more wasn't. In the beginning, the treatment was draining the fluid. They took out 3 liters and I felt so much better. Now I am on two water pills and it helps a lot. If I miss a day of medications like today, I will lose my dinner again.

Six quarts of fluid from ascites were pulled from my stomach and the doctor said I had hepatitis A. I'm just trying to understand it.