Wednesday, August 3, 2005

URGENT - lung hole being kept open by ventilator

URGENT- Denise has a new challenge, people. The next couple days are crucial (what day isn't crucial?), as Denise needs to get more oxygen on her own with less help from the machine. The hole that's in her lung (bronchopleural fistula) needs to heal because it's letting too much air out; she's not fully benefitting from the oxygen she's getting. The hole is being kept open by the pressure of the ventilator. Some of the air that they want to get into her is going through her instead.
The problem is that too high a concentration of oxygen can make the lungs less elastic, so they don't want to have it cranked up too high. However, if they put that less-concentrated oxygen into her lungs in at a higher pressure, she absorbs more oxygen. That pressure is turning out to be a problem, as it's keeping the hole open. I picture trying to patch an inner tube that's constantly under full pressure.
So what they're going to do is flip her into that prone position again. It's proven to be very beneficial to her before, when she needed 100% oxygen concentration on her back, and only 80% when prone. That was a HUGE help. Our hope is that that since she needs on average maybe 70% oxygen on her back now, they can flip her, lower the pressure, maintian the concentration (or perhaps lower it... wouldn't that be a miracle?), and let that hole heal up. It's risky to move her with all the tubes & wires. But they've done it before several times, so I'm confident.
Remarkable progress happened last Thursday & Friday when things got scary. Keep Denise & the medical staff in your thoughts & prayers heavily at this time. Keep in mind that in addition to the current obstacle, there's still the inflammation & fluid in the lung and there's still a raging infection that Denise is fighting.

On the positive side:
-so far, no strep for anyone else that's been with us
-Denise's blood sugar is up because they put her on IV nutrition... she absorbs it better, and that will hopefully make for faster healing of this hole as well. She was probably getting tired of the creamed filet mignon dinners, anyway. :O)
-The lumbar puncture (spinal tap) was done yesterday. Not all results are in. But the stains don't show any presence of things we don't want to see. The cultures will come in later today, and the infectious disease doctor will look at them later.
-MY FAVORITE: Night before last, when they put the lung tube in, I believe God worked a plain-clothed miracle. The specialist that was needed happened to already be there at that odd hour of night. Opinions are that if he had to be called and drive in, Denise would've died. In the midst of the difficult road we're on, that was a great example of a faith-builder.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...