Day Nineteen Part Two

6:56
Don had a pretty good day. He didn't eat much again. He stayed awake until late afternoon and then began to "cat nap". Don's hemoglobin is at 8 point something which is about normal for trauma patients. But it is low and should come up on its own. They may have to give him blood during tomorrow's surgery. The plan is still a block on the arm and if all else fails - they will put him to sleep. The lasiks worked and as far as we know there are no side effects. Don has expelled about 1500 ml of fluid since 12:30 when they started the lasiks. He will get another type of medicine tonight at 10:00 called acetazolamide. I am waiting to see what the side effects are for this one -but pray anyway that it will do what it is so supposed to do for Don's good and with no side effects for him. They will start Don on a bipap machine tonight to help him breath better when he sleeps. Please pray for tomorrow's surgery that everything will go better than expected. They will move his "C" line and put in a pick line tomorrow. His breathing seems to be more labored today. They haven't come in to do the Easy Pap - breathing treatment today and they reduced his oxygen to 2 liters. He seems to be a little confused this evening and that worries me. Please just keep praying!!

Day Nineteen

11:13

Don had a good night although I don't think he slept much. He wasn't confused and didn't express being uncomfortable. I was so give out he had to wake me when he needed something to drink. The doctors came in early and went over plans for tomorrow's surgery. Nothing new for that. They did say that they would take his cast off of his right arm and that they would send OT (occupational therapy) to work with the right arm. Breakfast came about 7:30 and before I could start feeding him the ortho folks came in to remove the cast. We had to put breakfast on hold until the cast was off. That was the first time I had seen his arm withouth bandages. He has an incision from the middle of the back of his forearm past his elbow and to the middle of the back of his bicep. They gave Don a sling for the right arm. Don ate a good breakfast. He had a bowl of grits, half a biscuit with breakfast casserole on it, a few bites of biscuit and gravy and then the "magic cup". He drank both of his sweet teas and a carton of milk. One of the other doctors came in shortly after breakfast and said that things were pretty much the same. The mannitol was not helping to flush the excess fluid and that they were going to start him on lasiks (sp?). We will have to watch him closely so that his blood pressure doesn't drop. He would have some of the same affects as what we just came through if the lasiks were to have an adverse affect but he has to get the fluids off - he can't sit in an upright position because he is so swollen. PT came in to try to get him to sit up but he was unable to do that. However he was able to stretch out and hang his legs over the side of the bed. Don is also very pink on the left side of his body from about his ribs to just above his thigh and then again from his knee to his ankle. He looks like he has a very bad sunburn. This is some type of infection. The antibiotics that they have him on should take care of this. Please just pray that they lasiks work to remove the excess fluid and that they don't make any matters worse. Don didn't have a temperature this morning and they are coming in now to take his vitals again. They should start the lasiks soon. They wanted to get a vital sign reading before starting the new meds. Still no temp so that's good and the blood pressure is good. We should know within the first hour after the lasiks have been started if they are working. Please just keep praying!!