I returned to Seattle this evening after spending the Father's Day weekend with family and friends in Portland. I learned that early this afternoon, Shirley was having a carbon dioxide build-up that was unhealthy and had to be put back on the ventilator. Within minutes of intubation, she came out of the fog for the excess CO2. Throughout the weekend, her oxygen saturation level remained excellent (98-100%), but she wasn't exhaling hard enough to remove the build-up.
I spoke this evening with the on-call Resident who said that they would do some more testing of her breathing strength in the morning and decide if they can take her off the vent again or if she'll need to stay on it while regaining strength.
They also restarted her antibiotic regime today. It sounds like this was to some degree precautionary, but I'll get more info during rounds in the morning.
Shirley is again being sedated due to the tube, so hopefully this doesn't set her back too far in terms of regaining her mental faculties. We'll see where things stand in the morning.
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