Casey did really great last night, but her X-ray this morning was bad. Not only is her left lung worse, but her right side is also showing more problems now. She also had breathing / heart rate issues this morning and then spiked a fever. They have started her on antibiotics for a possible infection and switched her off bipap to a larger vent machine. It still uses a mask (she is NOT intubated), but is capable of managing her breathing better. She is on it non-stop, and is being a real trooper even though you can tell she is exhausted and uncomfortable. We are still staying on top of pain meds without it making her too lethargic, so she can help with coughs and treatments. She really is amazingly doing everything we ask of her. We hope for a better X-ray tomorrow so
we can at least give her a break to relax.
Author: Tim
Lungs Continued
Casey had a rough night. I was worried her morning X-ray was going to be horrible. It wasn’t worse, but it was not really better either. The doctors decided we need to be more aggressive. Casey is on bipap for... Continue reading →
Big Day!
Last night was the first night all week that we were all able to get a little (not a lot) of sleep. Casey was more comfortable than she has been in a really long time. We are able to skip... Continue reading →
Good and Bad Day – we’ll take it
Today started off kinda as we expected based on yesterday and last night – a lot of respiratory and pain issues, high heart rate, etc. and to top it off all three of us were particularly exhausted this morning. We... Continue reading →
Rough Night
Casey had a rough night, but her numbers look ok right now. They bumped up her continuous morphine rate, so between that and her just being exhausted, she is finally trying to get some sleep (and Marty is out too).... Continue reading →
Out of Surgery
Casey is out of surgery – it went a little longer than expected but not much. No serious blood loss and they already extubated her. The new J-tube went in fine. There is some concern on how the old G-tube... Continue reading →
Surgery Underway
Casey was really brave in pre-op. They just took her to surgery. Her home nurse Emily was able to walk back to the surgery room with her – they talked about My Little Ponies until anesthesia knocked her out. Now... Continue reading →
Plans B, C, and D
We had another care coordination meeting today with the doctors, but it was much smaller than last week. This is mostly because Casey’s feeding is going well and that’s one less thing to talk about. However, her lung continues to... Continue reading →
Moving Forward
Casey had a good night. They started her on what is called BiPap. This machine is designed to force pressure into her lungs on every breath. She started this yesterday (2 hours on 4 off). In addition she was getting... Continue reading →
Closer to a Plan
We had a big meeting today with the entire team taking care of Casey – GI, pulmonary, palliative, ICU, nursing, surgery, etc. We asked a friend of ours to sit with Casey so that we could both participate in the... Continue reading →