Friday morning we left Angela's house at 3:30 for California Pacific Medical Center in SF for her right heart cath and liver biopsy. According to the cardiologist, she does meet criteria for right heart failure and for pulmonary hypertension, but both are mild. He will give his report to her hepatologist who will figure out what this means to her liver, as well as analyzing her biopsy. So, we really did not get any answers yet.
The doctor who did her liver biopsy nicked the liver capsule - I think that means he went a little bit deeper than he had intended - and that increased her risk of post-procedure bleeding, so they kept her overnight for observation. They were able to put her in a private room so I could stay on a cot with her. That was a blessing in many ways.
We got another blessing in the form of a Respiratory Therapist who was able to figure out how to make Angela's mask straps work for her. She's slept with the mask for two nights, now, without any complaining!!
Our trip home was more eventful than we wished. I got a little lost trying to get to the Bay Bridge and went around in circles a couple of times, on the third go around figuring out that I needed to turn right instead of left. There was a lot of traffic getting on the bridge - which I guess isn't unusual. While we were fighting SF traffic, Angela started to get very sleepy, and the oximeter reading was in the 50-60's. I kept trying to get her to breathe deeply, cough, and keep her mouth closed while crossing the bridge, with only occasional success, so when we saw the Hospital sign somewhere around Berkeley, we turned in to the Doctors Medical Center ER. They were very good to us and tried to figure out what had happened, but by then Angela was back to herself and her sats were good. After some more labs and a CT scan to rule out bleeding from the biopsy site, and after about seven hours, they said her sleepiness was probably caused by ammonia build-up, since her level was high, and gave her something for that. They said she would be OK to go home. So I fastened her in her seat, put a pillow under her head, and drove with her sleeping and me not knowing her saturation rate. We got home around 2:30. She was almost too asleep to get into the house, but we managed.
Today, she has felt well. She went grocery shopping but otherwise took it rather easy. I'm going to call her hepatologist tomorrow and see if he'll discuss her results with me on the phone. She has an appointment with him on June 8, but I don't want to stay here that long.
We thank God for keeping us safe in spite of the unexpected duration of our trip.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment