Preparing to go home

We heard this morning that Muriel is considered ready to leave the ICU.  She would be moved "downstairs" now if there were beds, but at the moment there are none.  Megan stayed with her this morning as I tried to get things ready to start working again, and of course I missed a bunch.

Her "jumper cables" (the wires that connected her to the external pacemaker) were removed this morning.  Megan learned how to place the "NG Tube" that runs through a nostril to her stomach (she is getting her breast milk and meds through this tube right now), in case she yanks it out by accident when we are home.  With any luck she won't need it when we get home, but apparently we are supposed to leave it in for a month just in case.

In all she is doing very well today.  Her airflow through the nasal cannulus is down to .5 liters per minute (next to nothing really), and her oxygen is back to 21% - normal air.  They reduced the diaretics (just Lasix now), and discontinued the blood pressure drugs.  She is basically on nothing at this point.  For sure we should be home by the weekend.

Seen here are the last few devices in the room.  The bag at the top is "Heparin" - an anti-coagulant that is to keep her IV lines open.  The pump in the middle - the last one running - has a syringe of Potassium to keep her electrolytes in balance.  Without this balancing the diaretics she has been receiving her heart has minor arythmia.  We won't be able to measure this at home, so we want to make sure it is under control before we leave.  They continue to reduce the diaretics, so perhaps this won't be needed much longer.


More later when we find out if we are moving into the regular hospital today...