Day Seven, Late
I talked to Katie after the 8:30 visit. She said she and Mom stayed there an hour, and Amy was there at the start as well, though Sarah missed it because Connor is sick. Dad had been off the sedatives for an hour and a half and was just beginning to show responsiveness, but it was nothing like the interaction we got before the weekend. It was a good visit nonetheless.
The nurse there was new to us and to Dad, so she was just going over his records for the first time and was happy to explain a lot of things. She filled them in on what all the medications were (but next time they'll have to take notes!). Dad's not processing food as much as they'd like, so they're adjusting his diet -- more potassium and magnesium, more electrolytes. Katie learned all the workings of the respirator -- having mastered the vital statistics chart we'd started trying to decipher that this weekend -- and was able to tell me his lung pressure is pretty good. His heart rate was also good, though it has occasional spikes, which he can fend off without medical assistance, thank goodness. His blood pressure isn't as low as it was earlier, either. His eyes are well on their way back to their normal color, nothing like yesterday's near-orange yellowness. The fluid on Dad's heart and in his lungs was still there this morning, but it had decreased. Dad's going to have the tubes in for a while yet. In short, he's getting better, but it's very, very, very, very, very, very slow.
The good news is that the mother of the other family we'd really gotten to know -- the other long-term ICU patient with full-time visitors -- was moved out of ICU and into a private room today. She's having allergy troubles but is much recovered overall. Their room has a microwave and a fridge -- the high life! Katie says our family misses their company already, but they've invited us to visit them in their mother's room. It's good to see that prayers do get answered.
The nurse there was new to us and to Dad, so she was just going over his records for the first time and was happy to explain a lot of things. She filled them in on what all the medications were (but next time they'll have to take notes!). Dad's not processing food as much as they'd like, so they're adjusting his diet -- more potassium and magnesium, more electrolytes. Katie learned all the workings of the respirator -- having mastered the vital statistics chart we'd started trying to decipher that this weekend -- and was able to tell me his lung pressure is pretty good. His heart rate was also good, though it has occasional spikes, which he can fend off without medical assistance, thank goodness. His blood pressure isn't as low as it was earlier, either. His eyes are well on their way back to their normal color, nothing like yesterday's near-orange yellowness. The fluid on Dad's heart and in his lungs was still there this morning, but it had decreased. Dad's going to have the tubes in for a while yet. In short, he's getting better, but it's very, very, very, very, very, very slow.
The good news is that the mother of the other family we'd really gotten to know -- the other long-term ICU patient with full-time visitors -- was moved out of ICU and into a private room today. She's having allergy troubles but is much recovered overall. Their room has a microwave and a fridge -- the high life! Katie says our family misses their company already, but they've invited us to visit them in their mother's room. It's good to see that prayers do get answered.
posted by Emily @ 11:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home