It's been a long hard day. So far every day has started off with drama and today was no different. She's been turned on her back, a process that takes two doctors and three IC nurses and about 30 mins. She's had to have a catheter replaced with a larger one, she lost 400ml blood and it took two hours. She's been xrayed several times she's had the new NG tube to her small intestine removed and refitted. For the second time they ahev not been able to correctly position it, so it's been removed again. She's had an arterial line refitted because of problems accurately measuring her blood pressure. And later this evening she's been turned back onto her tummy and resettled. A hard day for her.
At the moment she's stable and her O2 level is being reduced with the hope that as her fluid level decreases her lungs will be able to work better. But at the moment they only dare extract 60ml per hour and it seems likely that, taking into account what's being put in, her net fluid level will only decrease very very slowly.
However people who have seen her each day say that she looks better today and the nurse this evening also thinks that her face is less puffy than yesterday. But she is so incredibly swollen that I dare not publish photos of her here. Marion's Mum came to see her today and we gave her a strict warning on the subject before letting her in. In the event she said that she was very glad that we had prepared her first.
Whether it means anything or not, her blood levels are not deteriorating as rapidly as last week. Her red cell count was 5.2 this evening, which is not bad considering the dilution effect of all the fluid in her system and the fact that she lost 400ml of blood earlier. Her white cell count is 1.1, which is also not bad considering she's being pumped full of bone marrow toxic medication.
So, from my amateur point of view, there are potentially some spots of light if she can be kept alive long enough to benefit from them.
I've hung a huge photo of Kay up on the wall of the IC room - the photo at the top right of this blog - to remind us all of what a beautiful and fantastic girl she is. The evening staff have all been blown away by the photo. Hopefully it will inspire them to even greater achievements.
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Wishing you all some restful sleep.
ReplyDeleteLove Linda and Em xx
I'm so glad you've hung that picture. I've loved it from the first day I discovered your blog. She's so beautiful and full of courage. I hope tomorrow is better for all of you.
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