More Friday
I am frustrated... I wrote a super long post last night and it disappeared just when I went to post it. So I will just add on to what mom said.
Dr. Shear did NOT say they were unsure what caused the heart failure - he is unsure what caused the LUNG problems. They have been able to rule out MRSP or MSRA or MRSA - yeah, that's it... Which is a particularly nasty respitory infection. They also already ruled out the embolisim. He said that Dad was fine up until noon on Monday. And then suddenly his body responded to this dire pneumonia. He said is is possible - although highly unlikely - that Dad aspirated some vomit that then resulthed in the fluid in the lungs. What your body does when hit with something foreign in your lungs or whereever (like an infection) is flood you with fluids to flush out the irritant. Since Dad has congestive heart failure the influx of a tremendous amount of fluid caused the heart failure - which as we have known since this happened is NOT the same as a heart attack. Dr. Shear said that his heart is JUST FINE - or as fine as it was from before the incident. He said that the aspiration is not likely because Dad has a perfectly functioning gag reflex that is designed to prevent aspiration.
He is more concerned about making sure that things are moving through Dad's digestive system. We have known from previous experience that Dad's digestion is slow to recover from ANY tampering - and Dr. S doesn't know if it is passing stuff through, or just back up. Initially he was concerned by the amount of fluid from his stomach - but then the nurse said what was there was what had been collected ALL day - not just recently, and so Dr. S was more content with that.
He said that as far as he could see from the CAT scans (and they did a full body scan basically) was that there were no blockages, and that he should be able to pass things through - but what he can't see is if there is a section of the lower bowel that may not be working at all. He wants to put "contrast" into his line today to see if it is going all the way through... So I have visions of Dad peeing green in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Hee hee.
Dad is doing REALLY WELL. I don't know about last night - but as of yesterday at 3:15 he hadn't had any sedation since early in the am (4am to be exact). He seemed more awake when he was awake - and I was glad to know that he was probably listening to most of what Dr. Shear had to say since it was ALL good news.
Back to the lung thing - Dr. Shear was frustrated that they couldn't identify what it WAS - but that is mostly from a good science standpoint. Being able to identify it is not necessarily necessary to treat it - as long as the patient is responding to the treatment - which clearly Dad is. He wasn't coughing as much, and they have him at 35% O2 - which is great! He has progessively gone down on his O2 every day this week - which is what is needed to get him off the tubes. Before in the CICU we were told that he needed to be on 40% or less for a full day before they could take the tube out - projecting from that I would guess that since he has now been BELOW the 40% for 24 hours they CAN think about getting the tube out. That would be very nice.
Dr. Shear did NOT say they were unsure what caused the heart failure - he is unsure what caused the LUNG problems. They have been able to rule out MRSP or MSRA or MRSA - yeah, that's it... Which is a particularly nasty respitory infection. They also already ruled out the embolisim. He said that Dad was fine up until noon on Monday. And then suddenly his body responded to this dire pneumonia. He said is is possible - although highly unlikely - that Dad aspirated some vomit that then resulthed in the fluid in the lungs. What your body does when hit with something foreign in your lungs or whereever (like an infection) is flood you with fluids to flush out the irritant. Since Dad has congestive heart failure the influx of a tremendous amount of fluid caused the heart failure - which as we have known since this happened is NOT the same as a heart attack. Dr. Shear said that his heart is JUST FINE - or as fine as it was from before the incident. He said that the aspiration is not likely because Dad has a perfectly functioning gag reflex that is designed to prevent aspiration.
He is more concerned about making sure that things are moving through Dad's digestive system. We have known from previous experience that Dad's digestion is slow to recover from ANY tampering - and Dr. S doesn't know if it is passing stuff through, or just back up. Initially he was concerned by the amount of fluid from his stomach - but then the nurse said what was there was what had been collected ALL day - not just recently, and so Dr. S was more content with that.
He said that as far as he could see from the CAT scans (and they did a full body scan basically) was that there were no blockages, and that he should be able to pass things through - but what he can't see is if there is a section of the lower bowel that may not be working at all. He wants to put "contrast" into his line today to see if it is going all the way through... So I have visions of Dad peeing green in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Hee hee.
Dad is doing REALLY WELL. I don't know about last night - but as of yesterday at 3:15 he hadn't had any sedation since early in the am (4am to be exact). He seemed more awake when he was awake - and I was glad to know that he was probably listening to most of what Dr. Shear had to say since it was ALL good news.
Back to the lung thing - Dr. Shear was frustrated that they couldn't identify what it WAS - but that is mostly from a good science standpoint. Being able to identify it is not necessarily necessary to treat it - as long as the patient is responding to the treatment - which clearly Dad is. He wasn't coughing as much, and they have him at 35% O2 - which is great! He has progessively gone down on his O2 every day this week - which is what is needed to get him off the tubes. Before in the CICU we were told that he needed to be on 40% or less for a full day before they could take the tube out - projecting from that I would guess that since he has now been BELOW the 40% for 24 hours they CAN think about getting the tube out. That would be very nice.
posted by Amy @ 10:21 AM
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