Scary Moment - Post-Op Day 2

Saturday noon

She's definitely more swollen. Her left eye is swollen shut and she is starting to bruise. In fact, her whole body is swollen.

But on to more important stuff...

We had a very scary episode a little while ago. She's fine now. But, the intensivist wanted her to get up and walk a little. So, her nurse (who is great) started to get everything ready (an oxygen tank, mobile monitors, etc.). She cleaned her up and put a gown on her. The whole time Harlie wasn't opening her eyes. She was not nearly as feisty as she was yesterday. She just seemed much more lethargic. So, I did not see how in the world she was going to walk. She couldn't even hold her head up.

Well, her bed needed to be changed, so her nurse put her in my lap so they could get her bed all nice. While I was holding her, I could not feel her breathing. My friend Melissa had come to visit - and since they only allow two visitors at the bedside, Tom took a walk, so he wasn't there. Well, I told her nurse that I couldn't feel her breathing. I could see Melissa look at the monitor (which was behind me so I couldn't see it). Then she tickled Harlie's feet. Um, not a good sign.

The nurse looked at the monitor and told me she was breathing. But I could NOT feel her, or hear her breathing. I put my hand on her chest and it was NOT moving - at all! So, I repeated that her chest wasn't moving - and I said something like "how do you know the monitor's right"? I was taught to read the patient - not the monitor. Another nurse came in and bagged her and her nurse told me that she was taking very shallow breaths - which I didn't believe - because her chest was NOT moving and NO sound like breathing could be heard.

Her sats were 1. ONE!!! And I fully believe it. IF she was breathing - it was not enough to detect at all.

So, they bagged her, and suctioned her - a lot. And then suctioned out her nose. Now, let me tell you how much she hates getting her nose suctioned - she fights like there's no tomorrow. Well, she suctioned the heck out of her nose and Harlie never even flinched. Something was definitely NOT right.

Well, they got her breathing again and her sats came up. So, they are taking her off all drugs to see if she can wake up a little. And they put her back on CPAP (positive air pressure). They said that her chest x-rays from earlier this morning showed some collapsing in her left lung. So, they want to try to force her to get some air in there.

So, we'll just have to see what happens. I was very scared there for a few minutes. But, she's okay now. We know that blood got into her lungs - so she's taken a slight step backward. But, hopefully getting her off the drugs will help get things moving in the right direction. I don't want her in pain - but I don't want her to stop breathing, either.

Okay, that's it for now. I think it's pretty safe to say that she will not be discharged tomorrow.

More updates later,
Christy