What a crazy few days we have had. We do have good news- Casey is NOT going for surgery this morning. She was scheduled for a 9AM broncoscopy. She was all prepped and ready to go. Then last minute they said wait, it may not be necessary.
The increased bipap pressure night before last helped a tiny bit, but in the right places. Last night we went up again in pressure and added the nasal trumpet. Casey did not seem to mind it much, but the bipap mask was a really difficult fit around it. The xray showed a little improvement this morning as well.
Pulmonary came in to show us the xrays a few minutes ago. There was enough improvement to determine that the surgery would not be beneficial. However, she still has some work to do to get through the rest of the collapse. We are going to keep her on the increased bipap pressure over night (no trumpet) and continue aggressive respiratory treatments though out the day. Later this afternoon we will head over to xray to get a better upright image.
The bipap mask is giving Casey a bit of a rash. There is a wound care specialist here that is supposed to come by sometime today. She should be able to help us resolve the current rash as well as set up a plan for future rash prevention. This will be great if we end up going home on bipap.
We are working to wean Casey off of her major pain medications as well. I think with her lung improving some, her pain has gone down a lot. She seems much more comfortable in the past couple of days. They are giving her methadone so she doesn’t have morphine withdrawals.
For now we just stay the course. Casey is taking baby steps, but they are in the right direction. We will post more as we progress with this plan.