ICU Day 33 - Pee, Glorious Pee!

I never thought I could get excited about urine, but after several weeks of little to no output by Shirley's kidneys, they suddenly awakened last night.  This morning, they put in a foley catheter so that they could get an accurate 24-hour measurement of her output. This will help them decide if they need to continue dialysis or not.

We week or so back, she began making a little urine (like 5-10 cc's per hour), but her most recent infection sent the kidneys back on vacation.  This time, we're talking some serious pee.  It's been twelve hours since the catheter was put in and there is close to 1100 cc's in the collection bag. Very exciting stuff!

Shirley also had a "blue die swallow test" today. They are very concerned that someone that has gone over a month without swallowing may have some trouble "remembering:" how to do it and food or liquid could accidentally go down the wrong pipe.  Especially for lung transplant patients this can be a real danger as it can lead to pneumonia.

The test consists of a Speech Therapist feeding her ice cubes that have have been coated with blue food coloring.  Shirley chewed up about six such cubes, and then went on to drink several spoonfuls of similarly blue-tinted water.  After the test, a suction catheter is run down her trachea tube to ensure that there is no blue showing up.  Shirley passed the test--which is step one in being allowed to resume drinking and eating.  Step two is tomorrow when they have her swallow some barium and do a more precise test to make sure no trace of liquid ends up in her lungs.

Shirley also got into a wheelchair twice today and went outside.  The first was in the afternoon and was cut short by the unseasonably hot weather today.  A second trip around 8 pm was much more pleasant and extensive in length.

She is continuing to suffer from some severe anxiety that is contributing to high blood pressure and a rapid heart rate. But the ICU medical staff is hesitant to treat it with sedatives, as that could bring back some of the delirium that she is just recovering from. Tomorrow she has a consultation appointment with the psychiatry department to see if there is something in their pharmacology arsenal that will calm the anxiety without risking the side effect of delirium.