Well, I'm a day late posting this, but better late than never. On Saturday, Mom made some incredible progress. Jason stayed Friday night and said she had a pretty good night compared to the nights past. Her oxygen was decreased to 1liter overnight and the respiratory therapist said she her O2 sats were 98-99% so he removed her oxygen all together. She remained off oxygen all day. Later in the afternoon the fog of morphine seemed to finally lift and she decided she wanted to take a walk. Jodie & I helped her down the hall. I'm not good at distances, but I would guess it's about 75yards to the waiting room. She made it there like a champ. She did so good, she tolerated it very well and didn't get dizzy or short of breath like we thought she would. We sat there and rested for a little bit and met her sister Patsy and niece Pam there. Patsy is staying this night. Then she headed back to her room, even speeding up a bit. This is a huge accomplishment for her. She even said that it did feel pretty good to get up and walk around. She ate the most for dinner since she's been here. She had chicken and rice and ate about a fourth of the chicken and a couple tablespoons of rice. We're glad her appetite seems to be starting to coming back.
I was getting a little nervous because her telemetry monitor kept alarming that she was having PVC's (premature ventricular contractions, the ventricles contracting out of turn). Occasionally, they aren't a big deal. It just made me nervous when she would have 10 and even 12 in a minute about every 20-30 minutes. Her nurse didn't seemed alarmed, so I'll trust her on that. I eventually talked to a couple that are much more knowledgeable about this and they said they were normal for what she was doing at the time. They would always happen when she would be sitting up, repositioning, or coughing. This is her body's way of getting use to the new change.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Post-Op Day #4
Well, there is not much to update today. Things are pretty much the same as yesterday. The atelectasis is unchanged (good, it's not worse!), but Mom's appetite also remains unchanged. She is still VERY sleepy. Since the morphine/fentanyl incident, they have changed her to oral pain meds which she is requesting very rarely. It's just frustrating because we can't figure out why she is sleepier now than she was the day after her surgery. Her oxygen levels on her blood gasses continue to be normal and they even took her off of continuous pulse oximetry because she is now on 2 liters of oxygen. Today, when I called the nurse to check on her she ensured me that all the critical things (lungs, heart, incision) we are most concerned about continue to be doing just fine. That, we are very grateful for. Jodie stayed with her last night and earlier today. She said she had a pretty good morning. She did, however, have a little elevation in her white blood cell count (WBC's, the infection fighters) to 17,000. According to the night nurse, it's not "bad", they just want to take every precaution to ensure that she doesn't get infected or pneumonia so they started her on Zosyn, a pretty heavy duty antibiotic.
Tonight, Jason is staying with her. He'll do just fine also. He seems to be doing just as good of job annoying tonight's nurse as I did. I got there after work and she was in Mom's room assessing her and turned to me and said, "Oh, are you the daughter?" What can I say, I made an impression....
Tonight, Jason is staying with her. He'll do just fine also. He seems to be doing just as good of job annoying tonight's nurse as I did. I got there after work and she was in Mom's room assessing her and turned to me and said, "Oh, are you the daughter?" What can I say, I made an impression....
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Post-Op Day #3-Update
Mom's nurse just told us the results of her latest chest x-ray. It showed a "slight increase in the atelectasis of the right lower lobe", meaning the collapsed area has gotten a little bit bigger. We have yet to know what the lung doctor has in store for her.
She is still very sleepy. She did eat a little bit of her lunch today which she managed to keep down. Jodie is working on dinner with her. Dr. Seligson, the surgeon, decided that her tiny body just can't tolerate Morphine like other people so he had the nurse shut it off and switch her to pain meds by mouth.
As soon as we know anything else we'll post it!
She is still very sleepy. She did eat a little bit of her lunch today which she managed to keep down. Jodie is working on dinner with her. Dr. Seligson, the surgeon, decided that her tiny body just can't tolerate Morphine like other people so he had the nurse shut it off and switch her to pain meds by mouth.
As soon as we know anything else we'll post it!
Post-Op Day #3-Minor Setback
Mom had a pretty restless night. She had several bouts of nausea. Yesterday around 2pm they placed the Fentanyl patch. Somewhere between then and about 7pm we noticed that her IV had wet bad so as a result, she wasn't getting the Morphine IV like we had thought. About an hour or two after her IV was replaced she started with the nausea. She received 3 doses of Zofran overnight that seemed to help. Dr. Seligson's nurse practitioner, Jo came in and we had the revelation about the combined effect of the two meds. She decided that the Fentanyl patch that Dr. Salamat ordered was unnecessary since she was having adequate pain relief from the Morphine PCA and was the culprit behind her nausea so she removed it on the spot.
She did do much better with her coughing. They almost sounded normal. She was very pleased with herself and was even bragging about it to Dr. Seligson this morning.
Her O2 sats are fine, running at 95-98% even while up in the chair. Sometime overnight they decreased her oxygen to 3liters. This is an improvement from the 6liters she was on last night. She, however, is extremely tired today, only waking to us nudging her telling her to wake up.
Since then Dr. Salamat came to round on Mom and told us (with her"best bedside manner") that according to this morning's chest x-ray that the lower remaining portion of Mom's right lung has collapsed. Dr. Salamat thinks that this is possibly due to a mucous plug in that portion of the lung. She ordered blood gasses and a repeat chest x-ray. Depending on those results we will know if Mom has to undergo another bronchoscopy to remove the plug in an attempt to help "reinfalte" that area. We will know the results in about an hour. Please pray for her. She needs as much help as she can get to get over this hurdle.
I will update this again once we know more.
She did do much better with her coughing. They almost sounded normal. She was very pleased with herself and was even bragging about it to Dr. Seligson this morning.
Her O2 sats are fine, running at 95-98% even while up in the chair. Sometime overnight they decreased her oxygen to 3liters. This is an improvement from the 6liters she was on last night. She, however, is extremely tired today, only waking to us nudging her telling her to wake up.
Since then Dr. Salamat came to round on Mom and told us (with her"best bedside manner") that according to this morning's chest x-ray that the lower remaining portion of Mom's right lung has collapsed. Dr. Salamat thinks that this is possibly due to a mucous plug in that portion of the lung. She ordered blood gasses and a repeat chest x-ray. Depending on those results we will know if Mom has to undergo another bronchoscopy to remove the plug in an attempt to help "reinfalte" that area. We will know the results in about an hour. Please pray for her. She needs as much help as she can get to get over this hurdle.
I will update this again once we know more.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Post Op Day #2
So far so good up on the unit. Last night they increased Mom's oxygen to five liters from the two she was on earlier in the day. Her O2 sats have increased to 96-98%. They also added a humidifier to the oxygen since it can be very drying to the inside of the nose and air passages. Her color is so much better today compared to yesterday.
Dad said she had a good night last night. Dad was here when the doctor came to see her this morning. I'm not sure which one it was, but they read her the riot act about coughing and deep breathing. If she doesn't, she will more than likely develop pneumonia. We don't want this at all. Anita, her nurse today, told me that her latest chest x-ray didn't show any pneumonia on it...let's keep it that way.
Her pain seems to be a little better. She was up sitting in a chair today when I got here. Dad said she had been up for about two hours. She was getting tired so we got her back in bed. She gets up and down just fine, all things considered. She got a little cat nap in after lunch which was what she needed. Also, to help with her pain, they started her in a Fentanyl patch, in addition to the Morphine PCA.
That's all we know so far today. We want to thank you all for your continued well-wishes and prayers.
Dad said she had a good night last night. Dad was here when the doctor came to see her this morning. I'm not sure which one it was, but they read her the riot act about coughing and deep breathing. If she doesn't, she will more than likely develop pneumonia. We don't want this at all. Anita, her nurse today, told me that her latest chest x-ray didn't show any pneumonia on it...let's keep it that way.
Her pain seems to be a little better. She was up sitting in a chair today when I got here. Dad said she had been up for about two hours. She was getting tired so we got her back in bed. She gets up and down just fine, all things considered. She got a little cat nap in after lunch which was what she needed. Also, to help with her pain, they started her in a Fentanyl patch, in addition to the Morphine PCA.
That's all we know so far today. We want to thank you all for your continued well-wishes and prayers.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Out of ICU
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!
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!
She's Resting
We got to go to Mom's room and visit. She seems to being doing very well. She's wanting to stay awake to entertain Dad and I. We're taking shifts at her bedside encouraging her to go to sleep. She told me that she is scared to go to sleep because she's scared she will wake up coughing and that it will hurt. We keep encouraging her that she needs to cough and the epidural will help with the pain.
Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers. Words cannot express how grateful we are for everything everyone has done for us. We are truly blessed.
Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers. Words cannot express how grateful we are for everything everyone has done for us. We are truly blessed.
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