Friday morning

Sleeping in PSHU bed 9

Its a quiet Friday morning in the PSHU.  Muriel had another de-sat event last night at 3AM after trying to remove her oxygen again, but we were both next door trying to get some sleep.  I had actually given up at 11PM - Megan held out until 2AM.  It was efficiently handled; she got another dose of Atavan and fell back asleep.  It has been explained that she can get herself worked up into a state where her lungs have clamped down and won't let the blood flow.  Recall that she no longer has the heart chambers in-line to pump through that extra pressure in the lungs - she relies on the residual pressure from the rest of her body to get through the lungs and back to her heart for another circuit, and until her body gets used to this arrangement she can get herself in this kind of trouble.

They can't send us home while she is having these events.  Some of it is due to her chemical imbalances, which have mainly been caused by the diuretics.  Those have been cut way back, and the supplements have gone down much better yesterday.  Really hoping to see some improved labs today and some improvement in her overall mood.

This morning she woke up when we arrived and clearly wasn't feeling well.  Whereas her cries and unrest yesterday could be explained as general anger (give me the bottle NOW), this morning she was arching her back and writhing around.  I think she is in some kind of pain.  Her stomach is bloated again, though she has been poo'ing a storm all yesterday and today.  We are waiting for the doctors to arrive on rounds for a summary of their thoughts.  I'll post again when we get more information.

She's sleeping again now after downing fifteen meds and a smoothie from Panera.  As much as we would like her to be awake during the day and try to get back on a more normal schedule, I sure like to see her calmly sleeping.

Nurse Katie taking care of us today

Progress is still being made regardless.  Her foot IV came out, so in a day or two she could conceivably be walking again.  Her drain tube dressing will come off today and be replaced with two band-aids.  Not sure what the plan is for the oxygen.  I imagine we will keep trying to take it off and see that she gets through a day without it until she does.  Blood pressure cuff is back on again and taking a reading every fifteen minutes.  She no longer has the central line giving them constant pressure readings, so they may want to keep that on for a bit.  She still has the triple femoral venous line, which they have continued to use for drawing blood.  That will stay until they feel they no longer need those labs.  Probably the last thing to go.  They had to clean out those tubes yesterday with a drug called TPA, which breaks down clots.  All three lines had trouble drawing yesterday afternoon - nurse Cindy actually drew one sample that was clotted by the time it was transferred to the vial (and was no good).  I heard this morning they are still drawing slowly.  It would bad news if this triple line was longer usable - would mean another "stick", which is not something she likes whatsoever.

Smoothies thawing on the sink, ready for deployment