Friday, June 10, 2011

Friday afternoon

Here is what we have found out today.  They had to put the breathing tube back in yesterday and her oxygen stats did not come up right away, however, after a while, they did.
This morning in rounds, one of the doctors said that it was decided that another heart-cath should be done today to determine whether her having to go back on the ventilator is a lung or heart-function issue.  They could tell yesterday that her lungs were very wet but did not know if this was due to her aspirating or whether some pneumonia had begun to set in.  So the question before the doctors was is she having difficulty maintaining on her own due to issues with the lung or because of very poor heart-function.  A couple of the docs believed it was heart-function, one doctor believed it was lung related and one was undecided.  So they decided to have a heart-cath done today for the purpose of measuring the pressures in the right side of her heart.
The cath-doctor did the heart-cath around noon today and he reported to us that he believed that it was a lung issue rather than heart-function.  He was guessing as to the cause, whether she aspirated, whether or not it was an infection or pneumonia.  When asked, he said that to him, if a heart became available, he felt that it would have to be turned down because her lungs are not healthy enough right now and that they have got to her lungs stronger.
A while later, another doctor stopped by and said that he believed it was cardiac-related.  He said that he and Dr. Bleiweis (surgeon) both believed it was cardiac related and not necessarily all lung-related.
So, we requested to meet with Dr. Bleiweis, who knows her the best, and he believes that it is due to her heart failing.  He said that with her very poor heart-function, her heart being in such bad shape, any little thing such as aspirating or pneumonia or an infection of some kind can "tip her over the scales" to where she can't maintain on her own.  He also said that they are having to take a "shotgun" approach to cover everything, meaning they are treating for any possible infections, and doing everything they can do to draw the fluid out of her.  They have her on a lot of diauretics to keep her from overloading and causing more problems.  When asked if he would take a heart if one became available in the next few days, given the way she is currently, he said without hesitating, "absolutely." 
Now that she is back on the ventilator and they have her on drugs for her heart, she is now currently listed as a 1a status on the transplant list rather than 1b. 
He said for now, they will keep her on the ventilator for as long as possible because she has shown that she can not maintain on her own for too long b/c of the weak heart. 
So, our prayer is that a heart will become available soon, really soon.

2 comments:

Uncle Tim said...

Thanks for the update. I will share some of this with the Elders and Staff at Pinedale. We love you all (even stinky feet Camden) and wish we could be there with you guys.

James Coste said...

Thank you for the thorough update. I am glad that the doctors are doing there very best to keep her as healthy as possible until that heart is ready.

Thanks Tim for letting us know Camden's nickname: Stinky-feet.

Praying for you guys.