Tuesday, August 2, 2005

Almost lost Denise last night

After visiting the hospital, I found out the gravity of last night's crisis. Fortunately the nurse was on her toes, the specialist that they needed happened to be there already, and things went well considering the situation. Apparently she developed a leak in the lung and the right lung collapsed. The pleural sack that's between lung & body cavity had lots of fluid that they needed to get out. She couldn't breathe, even with the oxygen set to 100%. As stated earlier, too much oxygen is as bad as too little, so we'd like to get her off of the stuff. Denise's lungs are less elastic so it's difficult to breathe. They are under more pressure than they should be. My limited understanding makes me think that all of these things came into play. They put her on a "Pleur-Evac" machine (sounds like something that should have an "As Seen On TV" label on it). It helps her get the fluid out of the pleural sack. Looks to me like the fluid is blood. Most of her stats are near where they were before the emergency last night. There were even slight improvements in her breathing & heart rates (both were slower... good!). There is some risk while the Pleur-Evac is hooked up. So, as with everything, keep us in your thoughts & prayers.
Now for the medically-inclined that have been asking:
Amphotericin B Lipid Complex (Albacet?) is tackling the fungal stuff
Imipenem/Cilastatin (Primaxin?) is nailing the bacteria. (Denise loves Stan Getz doing "Girl from Ipanema" and now she's the "Girl on Imipenem"... bad joke. Sorry. I deal with this through humor.)
Kidney function is at .9, which is considered OK (was 1 yesterday).
Lowering the diuretic because they think she may be dehydrated (a puzzle to me because she looks swollen).

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