Yesterday morning... Because of mom's level of discomfort and pain, Dr. Lyn-Kew has taken her off of the Versed and Fentanyl and put her on a new drug called Propoflo. It put her in a semi-concious sedation while they tried to figure out what was causing her agitation. He believes it was too much fluid in her body causing what I am pretty sure he called a pulmonary edema (non-cardiac?). They have treated her with lasix (as they did before) to remove the extra fluid and it seemes to be helping as her breathing has become much less labored.
Yesterday evening... Dr. Lyn-Kew asked the nurse to start a gradual decrease on the dosage drip of the Propoflo. He would like to be able to pull her out of the sedation enough to respond, but not so much that she is in pain. By the time I left last night, she was moving her arms and legs, but not responding much more than that.
He also talked about the "bug" mom has which I gather from our conversations is her pneumonia. We're told it's a strain that is very resistant to antibiotics, with the exception of the one that they happen to be giving to mom at this time. There has been some improvement in the pneumonia looking at the last couple of xrays, but Dr. Lyn-Kew stressed that it could reverse or change at any time. He talked to us about this in case there is a time when we would need to look at an alternative. It turns out that what might be available are a couple of very old treatments that also happen to be quite toxic. As a precaution, he is going to start a conversation about mom's case and condition with the Infectious Disease (ID) doctors so that if we get to that point, we have a plan in place.
(By the way, if you visit - she is under somewhat of a quarantine room. It is important for the safety of the other patients in ICU who have weakened defenses that you wash and santize your hands when you come in and leave her room. And also just a warning that the nurses will put on gowns each time they come in, so it doesn't freak anyone out.)
We asked Dr. Lyn-Kew if we could solicit other hospitals in the area for the tracheostomy. He said her levels are at a point where he could recommend her for the surgery and we don't want her to fall out of that. Since we've asked for the tracheostomy, they have only been working with Saint Anthony's to schedule it and it just doesn't seem to be moving along. He promised that he would call on someone at Swedish and if that didn't work out, move on to Rose Medical Center. Both are capable of performing the procedure. Hoping and praying to hear things move along quickly regarding this.
They also took blood labs from mom (they are always taking blood labs) and the results came back with low blood counts. Ashley, her nurse (love her), said that it could be that her blood was diluted due to the extra fluids she recieved on Sunday. However, it might also mean that she will need a blood transfusion. She had said that the results from that lab would come back quickly, but as of this morning, dad had still not heard anything or been asked to sign a consent.
This morning... Dad said that she had a pretty good night. They stopped lowering the dosage on the Propoflo at shift change (7pm) and she stayed about the same as she had been when I left - that is moving, but not in pain and not alert. Dad said he even got some rest and was happy that although mom wasn't in "need" of the kind of attention she's needed the past week through the night - her nurse still came in and did everything to make her comfortable. Changing her sheets, cleaning her up and rubbing lotion on her back - just because.
Again, if you could please send out good thoughts and prayers about getting her tracheostomy as soon as possible, that would be great.
xox,
Tommy
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