Andrea is
stable. On the bad side she has not responded to the antibiotics yet. The
doctor just walked out and they now don't expect to see results until after the
weekend. Her fever is down and she seems more relaxed. They are almost certain
it is pneumonia but not what kind or the cause. So we are doing the shotgun
blast treatment. If it is from a virus it will just have to run its course and
that will take time. If its bacterial then we hope the antibiotics will kick in
and speed the recovery. She is on every antibiotic now man so if it is
bacterial we should see some response.
Due to
the condition of her lungs they have the ventilator is on a setting that forces
air in and never releases to zero pressure. Her lungs are not very elastic due
to the infection and disease so they are trying to maximize the effectiveness
of the healthy tissue. Because of this the vent is very uncomfortable, and
unnatural in how rapidly Andrea has to breath. This is because she has a lot of
Co2 and acidic gas from the infection and she needs to exhale a lot to get rid
of it. This also makes the vent more uncomfortable for her.
On top of
that they want her to be as awake as possible to monitor her condition and that
is hard with on her. The past two days have been the hardest ever and I hope she
will improve so they can back off on the vent and in turn be able to back off
the pain and sedation medication. It is such a fine line. And her condition is
very serious, very fragile.
Her lungs are weak which leads towards a slower
recovery. They said maybe 10-14 days on the ventilator now. Past 14 days they
will think about a putting the ventilator in the tracheal tube.
They
check her blood and lungs all the time looking for signs her lungs are
stronger. When they can they will slowly back off the vent and keep checking
and as Andrea is able they will decrease the vent until she can breath on her
own. So far the have not been able to do that. The machine is providing a
significant amount of her breathing.
She has a great nurse today, Mike. Both of us have been in this room all
day. I guess he has no other patients to care for. That is nice but speaks to
the seriousness of Andrea's condition.
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