Hi,
Eric was having a good morning; his blood pressure and heart rate were under control, and he was looking a lot calmer than last night. Then around 10 am, he started having another seizure. This one lasted a bit longer than last time. The neurologists last night had said that sometimes chemo patients can have problems with seizures if their blood pressure goes up too high, which is why they were so aggressive with his medications last night. However, this morning, his blood pressure was not high at all, so that kind of ruins their theory. So, now we're back in the ICU. We're scheduled to have an MRI tonight, hopefully around 8 pm. They were saying that they would try to get him in between 6 and 7, but you know how hospital schedules are... :) So now, Eric is on seizure medicine. We're hoping they find a reason for the seizures with the MRI. That way, thay can treat the cause and take away the seizure medicine. If they don't find a reason, he'll continue to take the seizure medicine for 5 years before they start to ween him off. Seizure medicine = no driving for Eric, which I know would disappoint him.
On the bright side, Eric came out of AFib with only the help of some medication. They started the meds around 2 pm and by 2:20, he was back in normal sinus rhythm. He's been pretty dopey all day today, since they gave him a lot of ativan (one of the sedatives that he had been on) to treat the seizure he was having. Apparently, ativan is also the medicine of choice to calm a patient down while he is having a seizure. Now, he is starting to come around a bit. It is just enough that he'll answer questions, but then falls immediately back to sleep. I asked him if he remembered having a seizure today, and he said no and looked confused, so that made me really happy. After watching him go through two seizures, I would not wish anyone to remember going through one.
Well, now we are just waiting for the MRI and will hopefully get results tonight. The resident assigned to Eric is on call all night. He's been pretty nice. He's a tall guy, too -- actually a half inch taller than Eric. So he's been connecting well with Eric. They were joking around about it before Eric went into his first seizure. I was happy that both the nurse and his doctor were in the room at that time. I guess until then, we are back to waiting! Oh boy! (Ok, I'm being a bit sarcastic.) I was just hoping that the roller coaster was finished.
Love,
Melissa
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Busy Friday
Hi everyone,
Eric had a busy Friday. He is very aware and mouthing full conversations with us. It's great that he can tell us what he wants and where he hurts. He can't actually talk yet, but the doctors assure us it will come.
In the morning, Eric had an EEG test (electroencephalogram). This test measures and records the electrical activity of your brain. Eric had a seizer on Thursday and the doctors where trying to determine if was any brain damage. There is a strong hunch that the seizer might be due to withdrawl from the strong drugs he's been on. We should get the test results today.
Eric had his first physical therapy session yesterday. The Physical Therapist showed us what exercises Eric should do. Eric was already asking for his arms and legs to be moved around, so he was definitely ready for this. The Physical Therapist did a few different movements with him, and was very pleased with his quad response (large leg muscles), arm movement, and head movement. They actually sat Eric up for 5 mins. They had him sit on the side of the bed, and usually a patient's feet won't touch the ground. But of course, our guy is tall, so they sat him up and his feet were fully planted on the floor. :) Sitting made him dizzy, but it sure was good to see him up right.
Immediately afterwards, the nurses packed Eric up and moved him to the less intensive care unit. He is now in the Medical Progressive Care Unit (MPCU). It's on the same floor, but a different wing. This was the unit Eric started in when he had to be intubated. All of this was a lot of activity for Eric. It really tired him out.
Shortly after the move, Eric started to have irregular heart beats. It's called atrial fibrillation, aFib for short. Eric had this once before at the very end of Dec. In atrial fibrillation, the regular electrical wave in the heart does not occur in the upper chambers of the heart. They are treating it with a drug that keeps his heart rate low. They believe his heart will revert back to normal rhythm soon. The doctors shocked him in Dec to convert him back to a normal rhythm, but they don't plan on doing the shock this time.
Eric's blood pressure was also very high right after the move (~200/140). They gave him blood pressure medicine, and in an hour his blood pressure was under control. In this new room, the monitor that displays all of his vital signs is right next to his head. It dings right in his good ear when something goes out of the control limits. It was really starting to annoy him because he was trying to sleep. At one point he was giving the monitor the evil eye. I told him that his blood pressure was too high, and that's why it was going off. So amazingly, the next blood pressure reading was 118/66. Pure coincidence, I'm sure, but it was still funny that it appeared he willed his blood pressure into normal range. :)
Eric has been able to sleep in 2 hour intervals during the night. Unfortunately they have to give breathing treatments and take blood sugars during the night that wake him up.
Overall, Eric continues to heal and build his strength. He is doing great!
Love,
Sara
Eric had a busy Friday. He is very aware and mouthing full conversations with us. It's great that he can tell us what he wants and where he hurts. He can't actually talk yet, but the doctors assure us it will come.
In the morning, Eric had an EEG test (electroencephalogram). This test measures and records the electrical activity of your brain. Eric had a seizer on Thursday and the doctors where trying to determine if was any brain damage. There is a strong hunch that the seizer might be due to withdrawl from the strong drugs he's been on. We should get the test results today.
Eric had his first physical therapy session yesterday. The Physical Therapist showed us what exercises Eric should do. Eric was already asking for his arms and legs to be moved around, so he was definitely ready for this. The Physical Therapist did a few different movements with him, and was very pleased with his quad response (large leg muscles), arm movement, and head movement. They actually sat Eric up for 5 mins. They had him sit on the side of the bed, and usually a patient's feet won't touch the ground. But of course, our guy is tall, so they sat him up and his feet were fully planted on the floor. :) Sitting made him dizzy, but it sure was good to see him up right.
Immediately afterwards, the nurses packed Eric up and moved him to the less intensive care unit. He is now in the Medical Progressive Care Unit (MPCU). It's on the same floor, but a different wing. This was the unit Eric started in when he had to be intubated. All of this was a lot of activity for Eric. It really tired him out.
Shortly after the move, Eric started to have irregular heart beats. It's called atrial fibrillation, aFib for short. Eric had this once before at the very end of Dec. In atrial fibrillation, the regular electrical wave in the heart does not occur in the upper chambers of the heart. They are treating it with a drug that keeps his heart rate low. They believe his heart will revert back to normal rhythm soon. The doctors shocked him in Dec to convert him back to a normal rhythm, but they don't plan on doing the shock this time.
Eric's blood pressure was also very high right after the move (~200/140). They gave him blood pressure medicine, and in an hour his blood pressure was under control. In this new room, the monitor that displays all of his vital signs is right next to his head. It dings right in his good ear when something goes out of the control limits. It was really starting to annoy him because he was trying to sleep. At one point he was giving the monitor the evil eye. I told him that his blood pressure was too high, and that's why it was going off. So amazingly, the next blood pressure reading was 118/66. Pure coincidence, I'm sure, but it was still funny that it appeared he willed his blood pressure into normal range. :)
Eric has been able to sleep in 2 hour intervals during the night. Unfortunately they have to give breathing treatments and take blood sugars during the night that wake him up.
Overall, Eric continues to heal and build his strength. He is doing great!
Love,
Sara
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
PS
I forgot to mention that this morning, they removed the chest tube on his right side. They're watching the left to see if that one is ok, then ll wipossibly take it out tomorrow. It felt so good to see another line coming out of him! One more step to recovery!
Melissa
Melissa
Wednesday Evening
Hi,
Eric has been a lot more awake today. First thing this morning, he asked us to move his arms for him. He's probably pretty stiff from laying in one position for so long, and this allows him to try to work his muscles, too. I'm trying really hard to be better at lip reading, but apparently, I'm a slow learner. He's been on a trach collar for most of the day. The Ear, Nose and Throat doctor said that the next step is to deflate his cuff on the trach he has now (they switched it out this morning to keep it clean), then they'll move to a smaller trach with a valve to allow him to talk. The next step after that is removing it completely. Hopefully, we will move quickly through this. He's been doing so well off the ventilator during the day, that I'm hoping this will be the case. We still haven't seen a physical therapist (PT) or a speech therapist (ST). The PT will give us a better idea of what we can do to help him out. We're moving his arms and legs when he asks us, but I don't want to do this too much or hurt him. The ST will do a swallow assessment to see if he can swallow liquids. Since he had the ventilator tubing in his mouth for so long, it expanded his trachea a little. This makes it difficult to swallow correctly, and they want to make sure no liquids get down into his lungs before allowing him to eat or drink anything.
We started to talk today about longer care rehab centers. These are centers that people go to directly out of the hospital that will work with them up to 25 days, as needed. If necessary, patients can then move onto other rehab centers for more therapy or care. It sounds like we'll be heading from the PCU to one of these rehab centers. This is where Eric will get a lot of his physical therapy. They recommended one around the block from IU hospital and one in Lafayette. It would be really nice to be closer to home. They both have their perks, though. Does anyone have any experience with Kindred (Indianapolis) or Seton (Lafayette)?
I told Eric today that his favorite racer, Michael Schumacher, is coming out of retirement and will be racing the Formula 1 circuit. He REALLY perked up at that. Then I told him that he won't be racing for Ferrari, but for Mercedes. He definitely gave me an outraged look. It was really nice to see his reactions.
I know new posts haven't been very frequent lately. Now that he's more awake, I find that I'm a little more busy. :) So know that if there is a long time between posts, it's because things are going well.
Love,
Melissa
Eric has been a lot more awake today. First thing this morning, he asked us to move his arms for him. He's probably pretty stiff from laying in one position for so long, and this allows him to try to work his muscles, too. I'm trying really hard to be better at lip reading, but apparently, I'm a slow learner. He's been on a trach collar for most of the day. The Ear, Nose and Throat doctor said that the next step is to deflate his cuff on the trach he has now (they switched it out this morning to keep it clean), then they'll move to a smaller trach with a valve to allow him to talk. The next step after that is removing it completely. Hopefully, we will move quickly through this. He's been doing so well off the ventilator during the day, that I'm hoping this will be the case. We still haven't seen a physical therapist (PT) or a speech therapist (ST). The PT will give us a better idea of what we can do to help him out. We're moving his arms and legs when he asks us, but I don't want to do this too much or hurt him. The ST will do a swallow assessment to see if he can swallow liquids. Since he had the ventilator tubing in his mouth for so long, it expanded his trachea a little. This makes it difficult to swallow correctly, and they want to make sure no liquids get down into his lungs before allowing him to eat or drink anything.
We started to talk today about longer care rehab centers. These are centers that people go to directly out of the hospital that will work with them up to 25 days, as needed. If necessary, patients can then move onto other rehab centers for more therapy or care. It sounds like we'll be heading from the PCU to one of these rehab centers. This is where Eric will get a lot of his physical therapy. They recommended one around the block from IU hospital and one in Lafayette. It would be really nice to be closer to home. They both have their perks, though. Does anyone have any experience with Kindred (Indianapolis) or Seton (Lafayette)?
I told Eric today that his favorite racer, Michael Schumacher, is coming out of retirement and will be racing the Formula 1 circuit. He REALLY perked up at that. Then I told him that he won't be racing for Ferrari, but for Mercedes. He definitely gave me an outraged look. It was really nice to see his reactions.
I know new posts haven't been very frequent lately. Now that he's more awake, I find that I'm a little more busy. :) So know that if there is a long time between posts, it's because things are going well.
Love,
Melissa
Monday, January 25, 2010
Trach Collar
Hi,
Eric made some more improvements with his ventilator today. About midday, he was moved to a trach collar, which basically meant he was breathing completely on his own. All it supplied was a little more oxygen than normal air. He was on and off of this twice today in 2 hour durations. Now, he's back on volume control mode on the ventilator to give him a break. He's completely off of both sedative drips, with only small doses of ativan (one of the sedatives, anti-anxiety) as needed tonight. The idea is to get him even more awake tomorrow.
He was communicating with us even more today. It gets a little hard, because he can't talk with the trach tube. Plus, he hasn't moved or talked in 6 weeks, so even when he mouths words, we have a hard time knowing what he is trying to say. I'm sure this is very frustrating for him. I just wish I could do more to make him comfortable. He's also starting to try to move around a little in the bed. He is so weak, and I'm sure he hurts pretty much everywhere. I wish I could make it easier on him. We're all so happy to see him like this, and he probably doesn't understand why; at least, I hope he doesn't understand. I'm starting to sleep at the hospital again, because I don't want him to wake up and not recognize anyone.
He had a fever yesterday, peaking at 101.5 F, but now that is almost completely gone. It will be so nice to start taking lines away from him, since those are the most likely sources of infection.
I wanted to thank everyone again for all of the cards, comments, emails, and packages. We're going to have a fun time showing them all to Eric once he is more awake. I think we've gotten over 100 cards since we've been here. They've been absolutely wonderful to receive and read. It is truly amazing the amount of support we have, and it means so much to all of us here.
Love,
Melissa
Eric made some more improvements with his ventilator today. About midday, he was moved to a trach collar, which basically meant he was breathing completely on his own. All it supplied was a little more oxygen than normal air. He was on and off of this twice today in 2 hour durations. Now, he's back on volume control mode on the ventilator to give him a break. He's completely off of both sedative drips, with only small doses of ativan (one of the sedatives, anti-anxiety) as needed tonight. The idea is to get him even more awake tomorrow.
He was communicating with us even more today. It gets a little hard, because he can't talk with the trach tube. Plus, he hasn't moved or talked in 6 weeks, so even when he mouths words, we have a hard time knowing what he is trying to say. I'm sure this is very frustrating for him. I just wish I could do more to make him comfortable. He's also starting to try to move around a little in the bed. He is so weak, and I'm sure he hurts pretty much everywhere. I wish I could make it easier on him. We're all so happy to see him like this, and he probably doesn't understand why; at least, I hope he doesn't understand. I'm starting to sleep at the hospital again, because I don't want him to wake up and not recognize anyone.
He had a fever yesterday, peaking at 101.5 F, but now that is almost completely gone. It will be so nice to start taking lines away from him, since those are the most likely sources of infection.
I wanted to thank everyone again for all of the cards, comments, emails, and packages. We're going to have a fun time showing them all to Eric once he is more awake. I think we've gotten over 100 cards since we've been here. They've been absolutely wonderful to receive and read. It is truly amazing the amount of support we have, and it means so much to all of us here.
Love,
Melissa
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Another Good Day
Hi Everyone!
We just saw the kidney doctors, and the first thing they said was, "Well, you really don't need kidney doctors anymore!", so they are signing off! The nurse is going to take out his dialysis catheter in a little bit, so that is one less line that is in him. Plus, this one was in his neck, so I'm sure it will be more comfortable to wake up to. They've already reduced both sedatives today. He's been awake a lot more this morning. He had his eyes open enough that I went ahead and put his glasses on for him. Every time we ask if he is in pain, he shakes his head no. He's breathing really well, so I think we might be able to move out of the ICU in a few days! The next step is to get him off the ventilator and put a collar on his trach tube. This supplies oxygen without any positive pressure for breaths. Then, once they've decided he can handle this well enough on his own, he'll be able to move from the ICU to the Progressive Care Unit (PCU). The last time we were there was Dec 12th and 13th. He'll still get a lot of care, but the room is much more comfortable to be in. We have not yet seen the Infectious Disease doctor today, but she said yesterday that she was planning on signing off today as well. He has made so much improvement in such a short time! Everyone that has helped us out these past 6 weeks keep stopping by to see him, especially since he looks so different and more like himself. It is so nice to get this kind of attention, because we've definitely had the other kind while we've been here. I am just so happy and so grateful!
Love,
Melissa
We just saw the kidney doctors, and the first thing they said was, "Well, you really don't need kidney doctors anymore!", so they are signing off! The nurse is going to take out his dialysis catheter in a little bit, so that is one less line that is in him. Plus, this one was in his neck, so I'm sure it will be more comfortable to wake up to. They've already reduced both sedatives today. He's been awake a lot more this morning. He had his eyes open enough that I went ahead and put his glasses on for him. Every time we ask if he is in pain, he shakes his head no. He's breathing really well, so I think we might be able to move out of the ICU in a few days! The next step is to get him off the ventilator and put a collar on his trach tube. This supplies oxygen without any positive pressure for breaths. Then, once they've decided he can handle this well enough on his own, he'll be able to move from the ICU to the Progressive Care Unit (PCU). The last time we were there was Dec 12th and 13th. He'll still get a lot of care, but the room is much more comfortable to be in. We have not yet seen the Infectious Disease doctor today, but she said yesterday that she was planning on signing off today as well. He has made so much improvement in such a short time! Everyone that has helped us out these past 6 weeks keep stopping by to see him, especially since he looks so different and more like himself. It is so nice to get this kind of attention, because we've definitely had the other kind while we've been here. I am just so happy and so grateful!
Love,
Melissa
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