Friday 09-19-08 AM - bad day

To say that she is having a bad day would be an understatement. It seems that she has alternating good and bad days. We thought we might be losing her early in the afternoon today. Her oxygen level in her blood went down quickly and her heartbeat went down. Drugs were administered, her lungs pumped for fluid removal and she was put on a ventilator. Her condition switched from unstable and declining to a stable state. As I write this, she is on dialysis and now on a ventilator. The doctor's prognosis is that "she is slowly slippng away." Her white blood count continues to stay high at 20000. Her face is dry from the oxygen mask, so is her eyelids.

Her lungs were the main issue today. Her left lung remained about the same as yesterday and her right lung has improved as evidenced by xrays. The mask and O2 machine put on her yesterday has been chapping her face and eyelids by leaks in the mask. The Pulmonary doctor said that we should go to the ventilator today if we want to leverage its capability. We did not have time to wait. I called Wayne and informed him and called Gail (previously discussed this with her) and discussed it with the doctor and family. We all decided to deploy the ventilator immediately. I called Gail again but she did not answer. Mother did not respond to questions so we made the decision through Russ.

Mother had two bowel movemensts overnight. That was great news to us but Dr McKennon took a negative view. He explained that it was diarhea and he would wait to comment on the output when lab tests came in. He did say that she does not have CDIF (bacterial infection that creates a false lining of the colos) but would get a second test to confirm that. Her colon condition according to the doctor is severe ischemic colitis.

Her skin continues to improve. The nursne has decided to treat her only once a day now except for her right leg which continues to ooze and bleed.

Her kidney prognosis is not good but not impossible. After given a strong dose (160cc) of Lasix, she produced no urine. This is still a recoverable situation for her kidneys, so we are in a wait state for her kidneys' recovery. SHe may or may not get her kidneys to function. She is having a dialysis this aftiernoon which will put 1 to 1.5 liters of fluid. Her hands are swollen and that is in my estimation to be caused by excess body fluids. The nurse said otherwise, so take that for face value. I may not be correct but the doctors seemed to be with me on this.

Her heart has been underfunctioning all day except after they put the ventilator on her when her pressure increased to a more acceptable level. At 430PM, her vital signs were OK.