I'm writing this en route from her room to the caf downstairs, just because I don't know when I will walk past an unused computer again. She's doing well.
They just did turnover at the nurses station. Kerry, our nurse from last night, gave a really thorough status report to Stephanie, the nurse taking over for today. She reported that Barb is doing well, much better, and seems to be out of the woods. The swelling has gone down a lot; her bladder pressure and her airway pressures are much better than they were. They kicked me out and gave her a bath around 1 or 2 in the morning. (With nothing better to do, I called Kate and woke her up. Sorry, Kate.) An hour or so ago, Kerry removed a shampoo cap (think of a normal shower cap, only stuffed full of shampoo, so sort of inverted) and spent a while combing and brushing some dried blood out of Barb's hair. She now has two pigtails and looks like a blonde Pippi Longstockings.
(Incidentally, I'm not sure why so much blood got into her hair. I mean, it was a messy surgery, and they wound up giving her about five liters of blood, which is about as much as a full-sized human has available. But the incision was under her ribs; it seems almost careless to have blood flying all over that much. The surgeons weren't soaked in it when we saw them. A mystery.)
Most importantly for Barb's status now, her kidneys seem to be working really well, which is good for the problem of getting rid of all that fluid that was piling up in her abdomen. She's fighting off all the complications of this surgery, largely on her own.
Kerry said to Stephanie, sort of to wrap up the turn-over, that when she came in last night, Barb looked like "a train wreck ready to happen. I came in and said, 'What have I gotten myself into?'" I thanked her for at least pretending to be more optimistic than that at the time. She said that things looked about 180 degrees better than they were last night.
So the outlook's not so bad. Keep sending prayers and positive energy our way, though; we are not cancelling our subscription yet.
Give Pippi a hair tug for me. Glad to hear she's doing better this morning. Love you, little brother.
ReplyDeleteI am relieved to hear Barb is better this morning. I think she will like the pigtails when she wakes up. Thanks for the update and hang in there.
ReplyDeleteSueM
YOU guys are in our thoughts and prayers. we are so glad to hear she is doing better. i think she'll like the pigtails. just don't tell her why she got 'em....something about blood stories are a bit daunting after an ordeal like hers! thinking of you SO much and prayers always, love, deb and crew
ReplyDeleteYeah... I figured she can figure out the whys and wherefores of the pigtails once she's feeling well enough to read this blog. Stories featuring the audience's blood don't go over so well.
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