Rachel had another clinic visit today. Dr. Fricker said that the chest x-ray showed that some fluid is still prevelant in her lungs so he wants to schedule her to see a pulmonary doctot at Shands; he said that heart-function wise, she is doing great. He did say that the issue with the lungs could be due to how long she had the breathing tube in and that it may just take a little more time for her lungs to fully recover. He wants to be a little more cautious considering what all she has been through. He also said that they may have to go up on her diauretics even more as she has shown signs of retaining some fluid.
He also wants a follow-up with the ENT doctor that performed the bronchoscope shortly after her heart transplant to see how her vocal-cords are doing. He said the goal is to be able to get her to take her meds in pill form as opposed to liquid form currently going into her JG tube. When the ENT doctor did the bronchoscope he did say that he wanted to follow up with her in about six weeks so it should be time for another evaluation.
He was pleased with the fact that she was eating although she needs to be able to eat more in order for the breathing tube to come out. He said that the more she is able to eat by mouth, the better the Prograf (the one med for anti-rejection) works in her system.
We had thoughts about maybe seeing if we could bring her home after next Monday's clinic visit, however, he was not in agreement with that. He wants to address the lung issue, get her to be able to take her meds in pill form, see what the ENT doctor has to say, plus, he stills wants to see her once a week and she still has another biopsy scheduled sometime around the middle of the month. So, his advice was to hang around for another few weeks instead of going all the way home and have to travel back so much, which makes sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment