Saturday

Today is Harold and Dorothea's 45th wedding anniversary!!! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!! :)

Dorothea had a great day! This morning she had a dialysis treatment, removing 3.2 liters of fluid. During dialysis they gave her a unit of blood to help boost her hemoglobin again. She is still experiencing some bleeding - hopefully that will subside soon.

The respiratory tech believes that her breathing episode Thursday night might be from the following - she has a lot of secretions (gunk) that is in her lungs. She has a hard time coughing this up, so it builds up for a while, and then they suction it out through her trachea tube. He believes that the other night they had her bed flat, or nearly flat, when they were cleaning up her bed, and he thinks that she may have been choking on the secretions. So, they are planning to always keep her bed at least at a 30 degree angle so that cannot happen.

She sat in a cardiac chair today for 2.5 hours!!! Wow - yes I said 2.5 hours! She was awake the whole time too - which is awesomely amazing. A cardiac chair comes in flat like a gurney so they can easily slide her onto it, and then set it at whatever angle is comfortable for her. This is a much easier transition for her rather than moving to a regular chair.

I went up to see her this evening and she was tired, which I expected, but she did wake up all the way and talk with me for a few minutes. She always wants to know what's going on with everyone...

If you have a chance, please send her a note and let her know what is going on in your life. She loves to hear about things going on.

Tonight the nurse told me that they are considering removing her chest drainage tubes tomorrow (from her bypass) - that would be really nice!