Thursday

When I came in to the hospital this morning I was surprised to see that they had not started her on the TPN (Harold was surprised as well). They had also bumped up her peg tube feeding to 60ml per hour...which yesterday they said was too much...but today it seems fine. She seems to be tolerating the higher rate. We still do not have an answer as to whether they are going to start the other feeding or not. Sometimes one doctor writes an order, but another doctor within another specialty can deny it if it affects something they are working with. I am guessing that is what has happened here.

She was on CPAP when we arrived around 8am. She had good numbers for volume and breathing rate, along with oxygen saturation and heart rate - all looked good. She was sleeping soundly, so we let her sleep. Around 8:45 Harold arrived, and shortly thereafter we were visited by a couple of nurses, the respiratory tech, and the lung doctor. Apparently Dorothea had an unusual heart rhythm shortly before we arrived. The lung doctor was concerned, and chose to put her back on full ventilator for now, so that her heart will not have any extra work. She has had occasional fast heart rates for a few days. They put her on Digoxin on Monday I believe. That is a medication that she took daily before the bypass surgery. It should keep her heart rate at a good level.

PT and OT and the Voice Therapist all came in today and worked with Dorothea. The Voice Therapist is working on swallowing exercises, and trying to strengthen her tongue muscle. She has been a little tough to wake up today, but Harold's deep voice and encouragement got her awake enough to participate with the therapists.

The plan is to keep her on full ventilator through the weekend, which will rest her lungs and her heart.