Last night she dipped her oxygen to 45% one time. I suctioned her and it slowly came back
up. Finally after 4 minutes of
suctioning (gagging) her I got her to cough, at which point she finally got
above 90% (within acceptable range).
That is a pretty long time being low and a pretty long time suctioning
her. I can do it better (on Ellie) than
the nurses or Respiratory Therapists.
They are too gentle on her and you have to be pretty aggressive.
Her hematocrit (red blood cells) is still low. This is why she has been pale the last few
days. It is at 27. It has not dropped lower, but has also not
gotten better. The red blood cells carry
oxygen throughout the body, so they thought it may be part of the reason that
she has been needed more oxygen. They
were originally planning to give her a blood transfusion today to help with
this, but then…
Her CRP was up today.
It was 1 point something yesterday (or maybe it was 2 days ago) and is
up to 4 point something this morning.
Which means she has another infection we are not covering. The low hematocrit would not lead to the CRP
being up.
Her last chest x-ray showed a little pneumonia in her left
lung behind her heart.
They are going to do a repeat chest x-ray this morning. I am fairly certain it will be worse. Her secretions are thicker and slightly
yellow (sign of infection). And her
oxygen needs have gone up (typical sign of pneumonia). The problem with chest x-rays and pneumonia
is that the x-ray lags behind. Meaning
physical symptoms are a better indicator of how the pneumonia is
progressing. You can be back to your
normal breathing/oxygen/activity level and the x-ray will still show pneumonia
for awhile.
They may still transfuse today, or they may not.
She is getting a new team of primary Dr.’s today. Sometimes that is good. They may have new opinions and new viewpoints
that the old team missed. But sometimes
it is bad. I liked the old team, and
sometimes I have clashes with people…so I may not like the new people, or they
may not be fully informed of what is going on, they often want you to tell the
whole story again (which is annoying, but I suppose helpful to them). We’ll hope for the best.
3 comments:
Hoping and praying for a good team of medical specialists to care for you Ellie! Regardless, I know that your most caring, loving, inspired, and involved caregiver, your mother, will be by your side and looking out for you with unfailing compassion and support.
Bishop Dan
Ellie praying that you get better and come back soon. My thoughts are always with you. Love you! Hang in there Mikael! You are an amazing!!
I love that you are not afraid to get in there and tackle the hard stuff. Like when you said you can suction Ellie better than the medical stuff, because they are too gentle. Way to go!
I hope the new team of doctors will have some great new opinions and strategies that will really help Ellie.
Thinking and praying for you...
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