Last night, I mentioned the issue of bleeding around Shirley's tracheostomy site. Apparently the bleeding issue continued to worsen overnight to the point that at 3 am, they made the determination to transport her to a nearby ER to evaluate and deal with the issue. I received a call around 3:15 and arrived at the hospital at 4, just as the ambulance was pulling away after dropping her off.
I was directed to the ER waiting room, where I spent an enjoyable hour with a loud, obnoxious drunk whom had been released from the ER just as I arrived.
Finally, around 5 am I was allowed to go back and sit with her. By that time, they had changed out the dressings around the trach and the bleeding had stopped. She was calm and sleepy. I spent about 45 minutes in the room with her before any medical staff came by (except of course for the registration person wanting her insurance card). When the doctor came in, she said that the bleeding had not been that bad while there and that they had already called the ambulance to return her to Regional.
Another 45 minutes and the ambulance team arrived. About the same time, the bleeding started up again. Another round of dressing changes and off she went.
The bleeding is slowing down, but is sufficient that they are preparing for a transfusion. They are also going to do a brochoscopy this morning to make sure that there isn't any hemorrhaging deeper down. They don't suspect that there is, but want to do this as a precautionary step.
They have temporarily ceased her blood thinning medications so that should help as well.
Once the brochoscopy is completed, Dr. Roper will confer with the staff at UW and decide on the next steps.
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