The Road to Recovery. Day 47
Well it's been another fantastic rollercoaster ride this week. Sorry I didn't get it out to all of you sooner, but it has been quite frustrating. Physical therapy continued to shine for Karen. She currently is doing 30 minutes on the treadmill with only 2 rests. The amount of time Karen rests has gotten shorter and shorter with each passing week while her speed has increased. Her afternoon PT continues to improve as Karen cruises around the floor. I swear I saw smoke coming off the bottom of her special hospital socks. As a matter of fact, due to Karen's antics with her special push cart
and zooming around the halls, they now have speed limit and fines doubled signs posted in the halls.
Karen had three episodes this week with her heart going haywire. Her heart rate elevated high enough to bring nurses and doctors in to hook Karen up to an EKG to monitor her heart. She was in Afib again so they gave her medicine to bring her heart rate down and get her back into sinus rhythm. The first episode this week was caused by the medicine she was taking to keep her heart in normal rhythm. The medicine works, but it levels have to stay within a very tight window. Above or below the necessary level can send the heart into a situation that the medicine is suppose to prevent. On Tuesday, Karen was in and out of Afib from early morning into late afternoon before they were able to get Karen to stay in sinus rhythm. The third time this week was on Thursday and I have to say it was one of the most frustrating and depressing. Physical therapy has been the only consistently positive part of Karen's rehab. However, in the middle of Karen's treadmill session her heart started racing once again. What the heck! Great. The one positive has now been hit negatively.
The other area of concern lately has been Karen's CO2 intake. She is taking in too much CO2 which is also not healthy. As the day goes on Karen starts getting headaches which is a sign of excessive CO2. Every time Karen gets to 48 hours off of the ventilator things start malfunctiong. Her heart, CO2 intake, diarrhea, and headaches start acting up, so Karen has to be placed back on the ventilator, which is a step backwards. I don't think we'll ever get out of here.
The doctor doesn't know why Karen's CO2 and heart issues contiue to cause problems especially after 48 hours of breathing without the ventilator. Every day Karen goes back on the ventilator that's more time we'll have to stay in the hospital.
Friday night we had some more tremendous excitement. Kiersten had seizures while Morgan was getting a car wash. So I high tailed it home. Morgan did a great job with Kiersten during her seizures remaining calm and doing what we've taught her. Great job Morgan! What more can happen.
Karen has started to nibble on food which is a positive sign, although this morning she was throwing up again. We brought her Chick-fil-A, her favorite this afternoon and she ate all of the nggets. Today she looked better than I have seen her look in a long time, so much that we took her on a wheelchair ride outside in the beautiful weather. Karen was so excited to get out of the hospital and breathe some fresh air outside with her brand new lungs. You should have seen the look on her face right when we stepped outside for the first time. Priceless!!
Hopefully we can get off of this ventilator. This week they are going to do a sleep study to see if the raised CO2 levels are due to sleep Apnea. Well plugging along!
Continued thanks for everyone's positive thoughts and prayers. Once again, thank you for the meals, cards, and donations. Without them I don't know where we would be!!
No comments:
Post a Comment