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
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