Monday, December 4, 2023

Bumps in the road

Do you remember the comment I made yesterday about complications? Well, chalk up the first couple bumps in the road.

I thought Becky’s delirium had improved a little over the course of the day yesterday, but that proved to be short-lived. She had another bad night. She didn’t sleep for a second night in a row and grew more and more confused as the night went on. When I got here this morning she had gone from “mittens” to restraints overnight because she was trying to take out IV’s and lines in arteries, and also trying to get out of bed. She was also hallucinating. She mentioned seeing kittens and a puppy in her room, and somebody on a motorcycle in the hallway. I’m hopeful that a month in the ICU and missing a couple night’s sleep are the main causes and that this will improve with the forced sleep she’s getting today/tonight - which leads to the second bump.

Becky’s drain from one of her incisions had been consistently filling with fluid more quickly than expected and had been getting progressively more bloody looking. When combined with her need for additional units of blood over the past couple days, the surgical team was concerned there may be some internal bleeding. Even though her oxygen levels dropped noticeably on the way, Becky went back to the OR this morning to get a second look. The good news is that there was no sign of bleeding. They drained some additional fluid and “old” blood, did a biopsy of the kidney to make sure there are no signs of rejection (no results yet), and used a camera to verify there were no issues with her lungs.

Due to the reduced oxygen levels, Becky was left on the ventilator and sedated for today/tonight - so she is getting some sleep. Probably not the best way to get rest, but hopefully it helps. Her progress overnight and in the morning will dictate the timeline for pulling the ventilator tube back out and getting her back on the recovery road. And then we can work on the sleep, delirium, and other issues that don’t need to be on a public blog.

So once again, we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

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