Mom didn't get much rest last night. They had a busy night in the SICU. I was given another scare when I was in here with her. Her telemetry monitor alarmed and showed the cardiac rhythm ventricular tachycardia...I've never dealt with it on Labor & Delivery, but I know enough about it to know it's not good. I saw several nurses running in the direction of her room. Mom panicked when I asked her how she was feeling. Just then I looked in the crack from the blinds through the window into the next room and saw everyone in there. That was when I realized that the V-Tach was in room 2. If I would have looked closer I would have seen that on the monitor.
This afternoon, Mom got moved out of SICU a day or two ahead of schedule and to a cardio/pulmonary/telemetry floor. Today has been a little rough for her. She is in a lot of pain and the epidural isn't keeping up with it. She got some morphine in her IV during lunch that helped her a great deal. The coughing is still what it was last night. She is going to get sick of us telling her to cough, but it's what she needs. She is so tired right now, the only sleep she got since Saturday night was the 6-1/2 hours she was in surgery.
Right now they are trying to decide what to do for her pain. I think they are leaning in the direction the starting her on a PCA pump and removing the epidural. I think they are wondering if the epidural was working in the first place....Yup, Dr. Ludwikowski just came in and removed her epidural so they can start her on the PCA.
My only concern with her is that her oxygen saturation levels (O2 sats) were 98-99% post-op and into this morning, but around 11:00 this morning they started to decrease gradually to 89-92%. I'm hoping (because this would be the best scenario) that it's because she's hurting and breathing shallow, but we'll see how she see does once her pain is back under control.
Tonight Dad is staying with her and I'm going home. However, I'm leaving him with strict orders to call for anything. He better!
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Our post-op thoracotomies always get a little low on their oxygen saturations post operatively. (I work in the ICU) The most important thing is for her to cough and deep breathe, try to move around and get out of bed as much as she can because the postoperative atelectasis will get them everytime if they don't. In addition, you may see her sat levels drop with the PCA too (though, I think you probably would be used to PCAs...but I'm not sure. Pink and squishy is not my cup of tea!! Haha!) Anyway, if you need to know ANYTHING please ask, I do know a little bit about thoracotomies. :)
ReplyDeleteYou keep your chest tubes and I'll keep my labors! Haha! Thanks Jer! That's what I was thinking. We're still thinking about your mom & family. Keep me posted!
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