Thursday Night Revue
The weather is crappy today and is supposed to turn crappier... Sarah and Katie were both talking about getting out of work early (or altogether) today to make it to the hospital at 2:30 (or earlier) and I may just do the same thing. The last thing I want to do is have to deal with a "wintery" mix late tonight.
Last night Katie and I were the only ones to stick around to the later visiting half hour. We planned to only pop in and then leave for the night, but Dad woke up while we were there - so we stuck around.
His numbers were looking good - with the exception of his blood pressure. He gets two readings on him monitor - one from a cuff and one from a finger tip line. The finger line was reading at about 117/60 but his cuff was reading at 150/90. They are giving him blood pressure medicine - but they weren't super worried about the numbers. Cherry - his nurse -said that if the two readings had BOTH read high, THEN she would have been worried. The high blood pressure is actually kind of a mixed blessing. They had taken him off his lasix (which dehydrates) to get his blood pressure back up. They should be able to start that up again today (allowing that he had a good night last night). The lasix should help to suck up the gunk in his lungs - which as far as we can tell is his primary problem at this point.
Cherry took another blood culture yesterday afternoon which she sent off to be tested for his "little bit septic" infection. We should get the results of that this morning.
They had him on 50% O2 all day yesterday too. He has been coughing - which is very distressing to us - because it is silent (the tube being IN his lungs and all...) so all he does is strain really hard and have a striken look on his face. He tries to pull his tube out too - which is natural if you feel like you can't breath (coughing). He is restrained. He HATES that (as we all would). They left him unrestrained the night before, because he was being good - but then early yesterday morning he DID pull out one of his tubes - so he was back on the restraints. Last night when he was pulling against the restraint when he was coughing, Cherry calmed him down and told him that they do that for his own safety - that she didn't want him to hurt himself. I said - "Yes, it is not because of your criminal past." He thought that was funny.
They do NOT have him on the sedative drip - but instead give him injections of - darn! I can't remember what - something like Ambesol or something - but I am sure that isn't it... They say that waking up from that is less jarring than waking up from fentanyl.
Dad wants a shave. When he is awake he wants to scratch his chin. Cherry told me that she intended to do it yesterday when she gave him a bath, but another patient showed up just at that point. Maybe she will be able to do it today.
I take comfort in the fact that Dad didn't remember any of his time in the CICU once he was awake. So - I keep telling myself he won't remember ANY of this miserable experience either.
Oh! Katie noticed yesterday that the tube from his stomach was draining a different color - kind of clearish yellow. When asked, we were told that was a good thing and that they were happy about that. Since th CAT scan showed no blockage, I am hoping that once the pneumonia and infection are cleared up he will be able to get back to mostly normal, pretty quickly.
Keep praying!!! Thanks!
Amy
Last night Katie and I were the only ones to stick around to the later visiting half hour. We planned to only pop in and then leave for the night, but Dad woke up while we were there - so we stuck around.
His numbers were looking good - with the exception of his blood pressure. He gets two readings on him monitor - one from a cuff and one from a finger tip line. The finger line was reading at about 117/60 but his cuff was reading at 150/90. They are giving him blood pressure medicine - but they weren't super worried about the numbers. Cherry - his nurse -said that if the two readings had BOTH read high, THEN she would have been worried. The high blood pressure is actually kind of a mixed blessing. They had taken him off his lasix (which dehydrates) to get his blood pressure back up. They should be able to start that up again today (allowing that he had a good night last night). The lasix should help to suck up the gunk in his lungs - which as far as we can tell is his primary problem at this point.
Cherry took another blood culture yesterday afternoon which she sent off to be tested for his "little bit septic" infection. We should get the results of that this morning.
They had him on 50% O2 all day yesterday too. He has been coughing - which is very distressing to us - because it is silent (the tube being IN his lungs and all...) so all he does is strain really hard and have a striken look on his face. He tries to pull his tube out too - which is natural if you feel like you can't breath (coughing). He is restrained. He HATES that (as we all would). They left him unrestrained the night before, because he was being good - but then early yesterday morning he DID pull out one of his tubes - so he was back on the restraints. Last night when he was pulling against the restraint when he was coughing, Cherry calmed him down and told him that they do that for his own safety - that she didn't want him to hurt himself. I said - "Yes, it is not because of your criminal past." He thought that was funny.
They do NOT have him on the sedative drip - but instead give him injections of - darn! I can't remember what - something like Ambesol or something - but I am sure that isn't it... They say that waking up from that is less jarring than waking up from fentanyl.
Dad wants a shave. When he is awake he wants to scratch his chin. Cherry told me that she intended to do it yesterday when she gave him a bath, but another patient showed up just at that point. Maybe she will be able to do it today.
I take comfort in the fact that Dad didn't remember any of his time in the CICU once he was awake. So - I keep telling myself he won't remember ANY of this miserable experience either.
Oh! Katie noticed yesterday that the tube from his stomach was draining a different color - kind of clearish yellow. When asked, we were told that was a good thing and that they were happy about that. Since th CAT scan showed no blockage, I am hoping that once the pneumonia and infection are cleared up he will be able to get back to mostly normal, pretty quickly.
Keep praying!!! Thanks!
Amy
posted by Amy @ 8:42 AM
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