ICU Update - Day 3

Shirley rested comfortably overnight Tuesday.  This morning, they started weaning her off the Versed and are changing the settings on her ventilator so that they can see how she is breathing on her own.  By evening, she is  40% oxygen (the atmosphere is 21%). They also modified the ventilation pattern to more closely match her natural breathing.  

This afternoon, they did some tests where they were able to evaluate her breathing capability and such things as the elasticity of her lungs.  The results showed that she was not ready to breath on her own--her lungs being too stiff.  I asked the doctor if he could predict how much longer she would need to be on the ventilator and he refused to speculate. He said it could be as soon as tomorrow, or several months.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is days away and not longer.

One thing everyone agrees on is that she needs to get some fluids out of her system. During a 24 hour period Monday-Tuesday, she was given over 7 liters of fluid and during the same period, only urinated 240 ccs.  For those not up to snuff on their metric system, that mean she retained over 6700 cc's (about 7 quarts).  She is all puffy and the additional fluid is undoubtedly contributing to pressure on her lungs.

They began administering Lasix to diurese her today and she is starting to make some progress on getting rid of some of the fluid.  There is so much though that they can't get it all of rapidly without doing harm, so this will be a multi-day process to get her back to normal

They also tried to insert a PICC line today to replace the central line currently in her groin.  Unfortunately, the additional fluid and her puffiness prevented them from being able to locate an artery to tap into.They will try again once the fluid build-up diminishes.

With the Versed wearing off, Shirley came around a few times today and was able to nod and squeeze hands to answer questions. Jessie called from Korea and when I held the phone to her ear, her eyes welled up with tears.  It's very encouraging to see these little signs.

As I was leaving tonight, they were going to give her more Versed to allow her to sleep restfully and will then ease off again in the morning.

Thanks once again for all the well wishes.  I'm sorry I'm being in responding to the individual notes and messages. Please know they have been read and are very much appreciated.

Greg