The roller coaster ride of the ICU is so exhausting. There are so many ups and downs, however the total trajectory is up. I keep reminding myself what Macy was like following the surgery on Wednesday, and how far she has come. Is she close to being recovered from this? Definitely not.
We started our morning with fire in our eyes. We set some goal, and we met those goals. Macy took a break from the bipap breathing machine and was on a high flow nasal cannula for 1 1/2 hours. During that time, she sat up in bed. It hurt so bad, but she did it anyway. Then she hung her legs over the side of the bed. Then she stood up holding onto an IV pole with assistance, and pivoted her legs to turn into a chair. She sat in the chair for 30 minutes!!!! We were so proud of her. Following that, she was exhausted though. She asked to be placed back on the bipap, and then napped for over an hour. It took everything out of her.
During our afternoon her oxygen levels kept trending down. She is really having a very difficult time from a respiratory standpoint. Her abdomen is extremely swollen with fluids. The large amount of fluid pushes up onto her lungs compressing them and causing her to breathe more shallow. A respiratory therapy treatment this afternoon was very rough. Macy was fighting the coughing machine some, but was really fighting the deep suction. Well, it resulted with a bleed somewhere in her nose, mouth, or airway area. Blood came out of the tube, and she had blood coming out of her mouth. Pretty sure it took her back to that early morning in December when she had the varices rupture. She freaked out, was very worried, and it send her into a panic. She desated her oxygen level, and we had a very hard time getting her back up. One of the ICU docs came in, and was a little concerned with her look and numbers so he ordered a chest x-ray. The chest x-ray showed fluid in both lungs. So another doc ordered a chest ultrasound to find out how much. If it was a lot, they would possibly do a chest tube to drain the fluid. It showed moderate fluid on the right side, and less than moderate fluid on the left side. They decided not to do anything at this time, and to follow the current plan.
Our current plan is to pull off all of this extra fluid that they pumped into her the first few days. They are doing that by giving her the Lasix. It was set for every 8 hours, but they bumped it up to every 6. It will also help the take off fluid the more she tries to move around. Getting rid of the fluid will help a ton with her breathing as well. It just takes time. Unfortunately this surgery happening in the middle of the school year has been extremely hard on us and so many other people as well. However we didn't have a choice, and I am very glad we are on the other side, working to recover.
Macy's evening was mostly spent with her falling asleep and waking up over and over. She was really worn out. We turned on some TV with the hopes of keeping her awake. It helped a little bit. Then some nurses came to our room with the BEST news. They got us a new room. It's bigger, has a huge window we can see out of, and has a shower in the bathroom. I was beyond excited because last night I showered again in that horrible shower in the family lounge, and my water was COLD. I wanted to cry, but thought there is no way that I am standing in this freezing water and crying. So I hustled my butt on out of there, and my hair still doesn't feel clean. So first thing in the morning, I am hopping in the shower in our NEW room, and then I am going to drink some tea looking out the giant window in our NEW room! NEW room, NEW day tomorrow. I am going to looking for God's gifts tomorrow in Macy's recovery. Please pray for Macy's body to rid of all of these extra fluids. Pray for her lungs to recover and clear up. Please pray for more movement for Macy. We are thankful that tomorrow is a new day, that can be full of many blessings.
When she got a new room did she get out of ICU?
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