Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Update # 176

8 Years

BACK ON VENTILATOR UNDER SEDATION!!!

This is due to a pneumothorax – the bottom of Jeff’s right lung collapsed this morning.

Back to last night when he finally returned from the liver MRI. I sent the update and came into Jeff’s room. He was sipping something from a cup so I asked what he had – “beer”. Really some Sprite before getting some cranberry juice. But he seemed very alert with eyes pretty well open and making some of his faces.

A little after Midnight, Jeff vomited. It was right after they had done some suctioning so maybe that was the cause. A couple of hours later, his numbers started to change so Jeff was given a med to relax him. Another couple of hours, they set his bed to “thump” his back and maybe get some more of the “gunk” out of his lungs. Twenty minutes of that was enough for Jeff.

Morning x-rays can be taken anywhere from 1:00 AM – 5:00 AM. Today’s was a little before 5:00.

Jeff was awake early and actually watched his KWWL “Today in Iowa” on live stream. He saw you Eileen! Great way to start the day. Jeff had 3 small bites of applesauce and a little Sprite.

The doctor came in and said the x-ray showed improvement in the pneumonia but – it showed the pneumothorax. The lung was leaking air out into the chest cavity. They would soon be putting a tube in Jeff’s side to release the air. They came around 10:00 to take Jeff for the procedure and things quickly went bad. Jeff’s right lung started deflating. Six people and a crash cart soon filled the room. A needle was inserted to try to relieve the air but that did not work. They called in a thoracic team of docs to do the tube procedure in Jeff’s room. Now 9 people were working in the room. Jeff was intubated/back on sedation and the one doc made a small incision on Jeff’s right side to insert the tube to relieve the pressure. Jeff’s blood pressure was drastically dropping during this due to the air in the cavity not letting the heart work properly.

After a few hours of letting Jeff’s body get back to normal numbers settling into the vent, another x-ray and an echo were done. The x-ray at 3:15 showed the lung completely inflated again! Probably hear tomorrow on the echo.

The pulmonary docs were brought back into the case and are going to perform a bronchoscopy tomorrow. They will go through the vent and look into the lungs. Also hope to get some secretions to examine.

The BMT team, the thoracic docs, the infectious docs, and the pulmonary docs were all just surprised that this happened and are trying to find the cause. Maybe a fungus that did not show up (started a med already for that just in case) or sometimes immunosuppressed people will sometimes have this happen. We’re just so thankful he was here! All the docs today have tried to apologize because they had been telling us how well Jeff was doing and felt he was making good steps forward. We told them we’re just so thankful they work so hard to to help Jeff anyway possible.

I’m going to need to talk to Jeff about doing these crazy things when Ken and I are not around. This morning was my regular retina appointment. Jeff had said something yesterday morning about why was I here, didn’t I have an eye appointment. I reminded him it was on Tuesday. Ken drove me back to IL (just 20 miles back across the line) for my 8:40 time. My tests had already been done and I was in a room waiting for the doc when Meridith texted about the pneumothorax. We were almost to the bridge to cross back into MO when Meridith texted about a problem. A couple of minutes later we’re on the bridge when she tells about the lung collapsing and b/p dropping. Ken got through traffic as quickly as he could. He dropped me off at the front door and I ran to Jeff’s room and got in just as they were ready to intubate him. Ken came a few minutes later.

So, it looks like Jeff has about a week setback. One doc described a 3-step process to make sure the lung has healed/sealed itself. Each step could be at least 24-48 hours before the tube can be pulled and Jeff can be weaned from the vent.

Bless these doctors, nurses and techs for their skill and expertise in taking care of Jeff. Bless all of you with your prayers, love, and support in taking care of Jeff and us. God’s hand was on Jeff today and He blessed Jeff again. Thank you everyone – especially the angel who cleared the snow from our driveway.

love,

Marcia