Improving

This morning when we arrived, Angela was sitting up in bed, working on her puzzle book. They had thought they might try to get her off the ventilator today, but she said she wasn't ready. All day she has been working hard with the respiratory therapist, exercising her lungs, and she says she's ready tomorrow. Her numbers look better, and I expect she will succeed. I am praying that she does.

Tonight I'm staying at the Hospitality House, a place that Mercy hospital keeps for families of patients who need somewhere to stay. Mike took the car to see his mother, among other people, so this way I can still spend the days with Angela and have a place to sleep. He plans to be back in time to see her tomorrow evening.

We thank God for His continued blessings.

She's Awake

This morning Angela's chext x-ray actually showed air in her left lung! They decided to see if she could stand not being sedated on the ventilator, and she's doing OK. Twice they tried to see if she was ready to breathe on her own, but she wasn't quite. Maybe tomorrow. Her ammonia level returned to normal, and her mental state seems better than a couple of days ago. It was good to be able to talk to her and have her understand. She was able to write notes to us, too.

We were reminded that things can turn on a dime, but today was continued improvement, for which we are grateful.

Mike's here

Yesterday morning Angela had her CT scan. The doctor showed me the images. Her left lung was totally collapsed, and her heart was so large that it pretty much filled all the space where the lung should be. He had very little hope for her improvement, but decided to do another bronchoscopy. He found and removed quite a bit of mucus plugging that left side. Later the respiratory person could hear some breath sounds there. The rest of the day she continued to stabilize, and today they may try to wean her from the ventilator. She may do OK in the short term, but they still don't think she'll do well long term with three major organs compromised. I think if we could just find a way to keep her oxygenated, she'd do OK, but that is a big IF.

Mike flew down and I picked him up in Sacramento last night - that is why I didn't get this written earlier. It is so nice to have him here. We are going to have to make some decisions that need to be made together. We pray that God will give us wisdom.

Mercy Hospital, again

By way of background, after her ordear last year, Angela has recovered her strength nicely, but her liver enzymes have never returned to normal, and she has continued to be jaundiced. In February she had another pneumonia, and Mike and I drove down and spent a week or two. She seemed to recover OK, but hasn't completely regained her strength. Her San Francisco hepatologist wanted her to return to repeat some studies. Then, she developed another pneumonia a couple of weeks ago and had to be hospitalized, so I came down with the thought of helping her through this, then taking her to SF. After she came home from the hospital, we had a lot of difficulty keeping her oxygen saturation up, but she always was able to cough, at least a little, and bring it back up until Sunday night, when it stayed in the 60's (normal is over 90) and I took her to the ER. She was admitted to the local ICU, where she didn't improve.

Then this afternoon, her doctor decided she was not responding to the treatment and was most likely going to need to be intubated, and she would rather that be done at Mercy in Redding, where they are much better equipped, so she sent her by ambulance. At Mercy, she was intubated, bronchoscoped, and a catheter placed into her heart to measure pressures. She started doing a lot better and when I left she was apparently comfortable, sedated, and showing good numbers on all the monitors. She's scheduled for a couple of tests tomorrow, and her pulmonologist needs to consult with the SF hepatologists, and hopefully, someone will come up with some reason for this and some way to fix it. At least for now she is stable, and I am going to get some sleep. I know she is in God's hands, and there is no better place to be, and can find peace in that.