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| Thursday, August 18, 2005 |
| 08.18.05 (8:47 pm) [edit] |
It has been 5 weeks today since John has been in the hospital. Tomorrow will be three weeks since his transplant. John has spent 33 days in ICU.
On Wednesday, John was excited, they were coming in to downsize the trache to allow more airflow around it, and more through his mouth and nose, to see if he could talk. They also told him they had to replace the tube they were using to feed him with a smaller one. He didn't like that, but the new one would be smaller, and more comfortable.. as tubes in your nose go that is. His blood work was good so far, and the docter told me that they had him on a dose of blood thinner they were comfortable with. It's a fine line were to much of it will cause bleeding again from the ulcer in his small intestines/stomach area or more ulcers and not enough will allow the blood clots in his legs to get larger. He walked to the third turn in ICU and was moving himself in the chair, when he was slipping, pretty well. The plan was to walk again then do the tube/trache work on him. The order for the trache downsizing was 2 to 3pm. It was 12:30 so I left to go to work to take care of some business, and I arrived back in his room at 2, and he was in bed already, and they said, they just finished everything. I looked at John and he "Where have you been woman?". He now has a little cap like device that fits over his trache and allows the air to be channeled better to speak. He was SO HAPPY to be able to talk. They moved him out of ICU to the Observation Unit on the 7th floor. This is actually where he started. Usually transplant patients end up there the day after there surgury, sometimes two. Eventually he gets a room. YEA! Good Day.
On thursday morning they removed the catheter. They told him he had 4 hours to go on his own or it was going back in. He said, "close the curtain". He will not be getting another catheter. He came in on 50% oxygen, and they turned it down to 35% because his saturation was 100%. If you breath regular air you get 21% oxygen. After several hours they turned it down again to 28%, which is equivalent to about 2liters of oxygen and when they turn it down again, it will be to only warm and moisturize the air, to simulate breathing through his mouth. He walked 350 yards today. They know that due to walking down a hallway and back, and he only rested twice in a chair. He walked twice and went further each time. He is schedualed for a broncoscopy and biopsy in the morning to check for rejection in the lungs. They need to sedate him, so they will try and let him walk first. I don't know what sedation they will use, so I don't know how he will wake up. We shall see.
On talking to John, he told me what he remembered. He remembered the mask and cannella, but not the mask being strapped on his face that forced oxygen into his lungs. The last thing he remembers is trying to each with his mask. Then last sunday, when he got to look out the windows. He didn't remember he had IPF until around Tuesday he says. He dreamed. He dreamed me and the kids were outside the hospital waiting for him to get out. His mom was behind a curtain. His cousin Kathy from florida had came to see him. He was in a hospital, a bad one, and he needed to leave, or he would lose his job. I came in once in awhile, once to tell him to breath slow and deep, and once to tell him he had new lungs, that they worked good, and this irritated him he said due to knowing he didn't.
So he thought I was his cousin when he didn't know me those times. He heard me talk to him those times, and the one day last week I heard him use the exact phrase I used to tell him to be calm, and that he had good lungs, and could breath, when talking to a nurse. He repeated that, "These lungs work good", in the exact way I had been whispering and telling him when he would get aggitated, when he was sedated before they woke him up. I thought at the time, that yes, his subconscience had heard me, and at least one nurse was wrong. I still think so.
I never mentioned certain things, like the docters were not sure if John had suffered a stroke during his last 'crash' and when he woke up the first time blind, and the left side of body weaker, and even when he first smiled that day, the left side of his mouth was weaker it was hard to tell if he had. It looked like he might have. He wasn't in his right mind due to medications for a while, and that didn't help any diagnosis and the doctoer at one point said they would have to wait and see to tell if he had suffered a stroke, but he didn't think so. He is doing better mentally, physically, and he beat me plying word jumble on this little spell checker he was using to spell words to us when I couldn't always read his lips. Brit appeared to be the best lip reader, even better then me or his sister. He has told me he loved me, asked me to marry him, and set a date of September 10,(which is our 11th anniversary). A date he says he will be out of the hospital for.
He is ready for visitors I believe, and probably if you realize he lost alot of weight, and is weak, and has a trache... well, he gets impatient to go home, and seeing friends/family would cheer him up.
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