Saturday November 15th
Saturday morning started with some severe pain early, early in the morning. This was the same type of pain and location (left upper back, side and under ribcage) that she experienced the Monday night I brought her in to the hospital. It took the nurses quite a while to get this pain under control (about an hour). As with most occurrences after she had a spell of significant pain, Meg was given another chest x-ray and some blood was drawn for cultures to make sure she was not dealing with an infection. The chest x-rays came back showing no air pocket outside of her left lung (still good news) and the cultures showed all negative for infection. Due to the severe pain she was experiencing on and off all day, Meg would not be leaving the hospital as originally hoped. The doctors modified the pain medications, dose sizes and how often she could take the drugs to help hopefully get the pain under control by Sunday without the use of IV pain medications. If successful she may be able to go home Sunday. Also Saturday afternoon Meg’s parents came up to the hospital with Annabelle, Talin and Meg’s sister Cassie for a short visit. By 8 pm Meg was very sleepy (the nurse said these meds will put you to sleep) and before long she was out in a deep sleep.
Sunday November 16th
Not much into Sunday-about 4 am the severe pain was back, and by 5 am Meg again had been given some strong IV meds and was again having to travel down to an x-ray room for a chest x-ray. This time the disappointing results came back with the x-ray showing an air pocket outside of Meg’s left lung. This pneumo-thorax (or partially collapsed lung) would set Meg back at least a few days. It is still believed that this air pocket was generated during her lung biopsy that she had early last week-an air bubble originally showed up after the biopsy but quickly went away but now a bubble has reformed. By 11:00 am the medical staff had placed a chest tube into Meg’s upper left chest in an attempt to pull (suction) the air out. This was tough for both of us because Meg was so glad to get the chest drain out, just to get another tube put into her chest 2 days later. The afternoon went decent for Meg as she was able to rest relatively well. I left the hospital for the first time since I believe Wednesday and went to my parents for a couple hours. Thanks to by Big-Bro and others for looking out for me. Meg was able to get some sleep but again by 11:00 pm the severe pain was back, and by midnight Meg again had been given some strong IV meds to take the edge off of the pain.
Monday November 17th
Not much after midnight Meg was given another chest x-ray and upon the radiologist reading it, there was not much change in the size of the pneumo-thorax. We waited for some of the doctors to come in this morning to get an opinion of what to do next. The first thing one of the doctors noticed was that the chest tube was set up with the collection container but not set up for extra suction by hooking it up to an air valve on the room wall. She hooked it up to suction to see if they could reduce the air pocket size without changing the size of the chest tube. Another x-ray was taken at 3 pm and this x-ray showed the air pocket reduced in size but was still present. Right now we are just hoping and praying that the right blend of drugs will be found to make it so that Meg no longer suffers from severe pain and that this pneumo-thorax would resolve itself fast. The kids are on their way up for a visit now.
Saturday morning started with some severe pain early, early in the morning. This was the same type of pain and location (left upper back, side and under ribcage) that she experienced the Monday night I brought her in to the hospital. It took the nurses quite a while to get this pain under control (about an hour). As with most occurrences after she had a spell of significant pain, Meg was given another chest x-ray and some blood was drawn for cultures to make sure she was not dealing with an infection. The chest x-rays came back showing no air pocket outside of her left lung (still good news) and the cultures showed all negative for infection. Due to the severe pain she was experiencing on and off all day, Meg would not be leaving the hospital as originally hoped. The doctors modified the pain medications, dose sizes and how often she could take the drugs to help hopefully get the pain under control by Sunday without the use of IV pain medications. If successful she may be able to go home Sunday. Also Saturday afternoon Meg’s parents came up to the hospital with Annabelle, Talin and Meg’s sister Cassie for a short visit. By 8 pm Meg was very sleepy (the nurse said these meds will put you to sleep) and before long she was out in a deep sleep.
Sunday November 16th
Not much into Sunday-about 4 am the severe pain was back, and by 5 am Meg again had been given some strong IV meds and was again having to travel down to an x-ray room for a chest x-ray. This time the disappointing results came back with the x-ray showing an air pocket outside of Meg’s left lung. This pneumo-thorax (or partially collapsed lung) would set Meg back at least a few days. It is still believed that this air pocket was generated during her lung biopsy that she had early last week-an air bubble originally showed up after the biopsy but quickly went away but now a bubble has reformed. By 11:00 am the medical staff had placed a chest tube into Meg’s upper left chest in an attempt to pull (suction) the air out. This was tough for both of us because Meg was so glad to get the chest drain out, just to get another tube put into her chest 2 days later. The afternoon went decent for Meg as she was able to rest relatively well. I left the hospital for the first time since I believe Wednesday and went to my parents for a couple hours. Thanks to by Big-Bro and others for looking out for me. Meg was able to get some sleep but again by 11:00 pm the severe pain was back, and by midnight Meg again had been given some strong IV meds to take the edge off of the pain.
Monday November 17th
Not much after midnight Meg was given another chest x-ray and upon the radiologist reading it, there was not much change in the size of the pneumo-thorax. We waited for some of the doctors to come in this morning to get an opinion of what to do next. The first thing one of the doctors noticed was that the chest tube was set up with the collection container but not set up for extra suction by hooking it up to an air valve on the room wall. She hooked it up to suction to see if they could reduce the air pocket size without changing the size of the chest tube. Another x-ray was taken at 3 pm and this x-ray showed the air pocket reduced in size but was still present. Right now we are just hoping and praying that the right blend of drugs will be found to make it so that Meg no longer suffers from severe pain and that this pneumo-thorax would resolve itself fast. The kids are on their way up for a visit now.
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