Today, Day 36! Better or Worse?

The last 4 days have been hectic, emotionally up and down; though mostly down. Mom continued to bleed, continued to throw up blood and became increasingly more uncomfortable. Her breathing became more labored, hemaglobin was up and down though more down than up. She received more packed cells.

Once again the surgeons thought about doing an endoscopy to try and determine the source of the bleeding. Once again they scheduled and cancelled it. This now makes the 4th one scheduled, and 2nd one cancelled. This wasn't communicated very well, and there seemed to be confusion to do it or not.

Enter, Dr. Iscabar!!! A wonderful doctor and communicator. FINALLY! She's a Pulmonary and Intensivist. She explains she's got too much fluid in her lungs to do endoscopy and that would heighten the risk, she ups her Lasix's, ulters the IV's, and indicates she needs closer watching. Transfers her to A step down unit (where she went right after being ICU), a much lower nurse to patient ratio, more equipment etc. Further she indcates the primary difficulty needing immediate attention is her lungs, full of liquid, the need to stop the throwing up, emphysema being a major problem. Cardiologist get involved and the decision is made for added suction to get some of the junk out of her stomach, insert a chest tube (now her 3rd one) to drain off this liquid (which appears to have lots of blood in it) from her lungs. They did all this yesterday. She's in pain, but actually is breathing and resting better. Her hemaglobin is starting to recover.

For the time being, status quo. Everything seems to be monitored more closely and she makes rounds more often and communicates and toes and fingers crossed; we might be seeing some minimal improvement. She's far from out of the woods; but...maybe a light at the tunnel can be observed.

Thanks to all for your continued support and prayer, all is much appreciated. Managed a few updates here on the blog with my charity numbers. My yarn bag stays with me at the hospital. Most recently, I've made 6 pair of booties and 5 infant hats.

I hope to get some pictures proceesed to update the bridge, so please check in later there. Would love you all to pop over to my SIL, Jan's site (some of you have before), to see her really awesome new blog banner. We're both pretty excited about it. Badges for both in the right side bar.