Chest Tube Troubles

Not much has changed today as far as medication goes except that she is on the insulin drip again instead of getting shots. However, the tube they put in Jenni's chest yesterday to help reinflate her lung has clogged (the blood clotted inside it and stopped it up). They aren't sure what to do about it. They mentioned leaving it as is, taking the whole line out, or just trying to remove the clot. It depends on the results of the CT scan that they should have completed during the 2:00 to 4:30 "no visitors" time. It is clear that while the tube is clotted, no more fluid can be drained. However, the clotting may be preventing the lung from bleeding into the chest cavity. Hopefully I'll have good news when I get a chance to post again. I wish I knew whether this was good or bad news. It sounds bad, but if there is a possibility of an upside I am grateful for that.

A Busy Morning: Lungs a Little Worse & New Breathing Treatment

This morning, the nurses noticed that her oxygen level had dropped, so they changed the oxygen mask a little. They added a tube on each side that should help keep the concentrated oxygen close to her mouth and nose longer. It wasn't a huge change, but it put her oxygen level back up into the normal range again. We have been joking about how the new tubes make it look like she has antennae, so Jenni suggested that I take her picture and show everyone her new mask. I didn't even know that she had a camera here, but she brought one for some reason.

When breakfast came, she tried removing the mask long enough to take a bite of food and then replacing it while she chewed, but her oxygen level dropped dramatically when she did so I broke a plastic fork in half and fed her through one of the holes in the mask. That was a fiasco... we only got about a fourth of her food through before we replaced the blue tube, but she did get in all of her fluids (sweet tea, apple juice, and a cup of water).

When the doctor arrived, he started her on a new treatment, a bronchodilator called albuterol. I'm not sure exactly how the drug works, but they hook it up to the mask so she breathes it in and it is supposed to help out her lungs. Her kidney functions are slightly worse than yesterday, but no worse than they were last week so it may just be a small fluctuation.

She is also off of the insulin drip, but they are still giving her insulin shots. I'm not sure if that's good news... it means she needs less insulin but it also means that they are poking her more often now.

Judi is visiting and she brought a friend from nursing school. We took some more pictures, so I thought I'd share. Jenni gave the "ok" on these as well. I'll post a slide show with pictures of Jenni in good health soon and I still plan on posting more information about the Adsense program later today. It has just been a busier morning than anyone expected.