Not getting better

This has been a scary last month, but I can honestly say that I'm as nervous now as I've been since the night Shirley was first taken into the OR.  We're wrapping up Day 4 of her re-admit and we really haven't resolved either of the two issues that brought us back in.

Today, Shirley had an endoscopy to see if they could figure out why she was having so much pain eating.  I didn't hear from the GI team directly, but her nurse said "everything looked normal."  Normally this would be good news but it doesn't answer why it hurts her to eat.

Yesterday, they inserted a small drain tube in her side to try and relieve some of the pressure from the excess fluid accumulating around her lungs.  It is working to some degree but she continues to have drainage issues along her incision line.

Today one of her surgeons came to inspect to check on her. He was pleased with the progress of her new lungs, but was very concerned about the fact her incision was not healing better. He was going to consult with the head surgeon but indicated that he wanted to take her back into surgery to reopen the incision and get it cleaned out.

It takes nutrition, especially protein, to help wounds heal and Shirley hasn't been eating.  And even though she now has a feeding tube, the procedures she has needed for three straight days have limited her intake to only a few hours each day.  At least tonight her nurse (a tough old former army combat medic) convinced the doctors that the 25cc per hour they ordered was not going to get the job done and got the approval to push 250cc in about 5 minutes.

Shirley has been mostly sleeping today.  When she wakes up, she's not sure what day it is or if it's night or day.

Please say a prayer for Shirley and help send good thought her way. She needs all the positive energy we can muster right now.