Crazy Monday

Okay, Dorothea's day wasn't crazy, mine was. Sorry this posting is so late!

While the doctors try to figure out what is causing the gas in her stomach, they went ahead and started her on the TPN feeding through IV. This will give her some much needed nutrition. The first bag or two of the TPN did not include insulin with it, so her blood sugar was high for awhile, but by this evening it was much better (147) - from now on their will be insulin in the TPN feeding, so this shouldn't be an issue.

Dorothea had dialysis this morning, removing 1.6 L of fluid. Her chest tubes are continuing to drain fluid from her lungs - for the 12 hour shift today they drained a little over 200ml (2 lung total). She is still producing some urine, not a lot, but we still feel enouraged that she is producing, so hopefully the kidneys will slowly get back to normal.

PT and OT came in today. They are limited as to what they can do right now because there is a lot connected to her right now, but they did range of motion exercises for her arms, shoulders, hands, legs, ankles, feet, etc. It was plenty for her for today.

Bob and Jessica came to visit today... on Bob's birthday. Bringing flowers and balloon and brightening her day!

She was on CPAP again today, for about 6 hours I believe. They will try to increase that each day probably. They need to balance all factors - keeping her comfortable and keeping her blood gasses and oxygen saturation at good levels. This shows good progress, and the respiratory techs are consistently working towards weaning her from the vent.

While I was there tonight she had a bit of trouble coughing. After the nurses were in moving in she began to cough more and looked panicky-she motioned to Harold and he knew what she needed. He raised her up in bed and gave her the pan... but luckily she did not end up needing it. I haven't been present when any of this has happened before. I don't like to see her like that. However, the respiratory tech came in and suctioned her out, and removed a lot of gunk from both her mouth and her lungs, and after that she seemed to be very comfortable. While she was there she went ahead and cleaned up the trach and stoma area and said that she is healing very well. She is using a medicated mesh bandage around the stoma area which is helping it heal much better. It was fun to watch as Harold assisted the nurse in her procedures... he is a great asset to the team! He knows what they do, what they need, and where all the supplies are...it is fun to watch...

John came in before I left so I was able to catch up with him and Dorothea got to hear lots of stories... she probably wanted to sleep... but I am sure she enjoyed hearing stories too.