Mom is a Bit Better, PHEW!

Medical update for those who are sending Mom love:

This early morning she could hardly breathe at all, and there were some very scary coughing moments between 6:30 and 9, so much so that her wonderful nurse John called Doctor Petersen, who (unlike some docs) called RIGHT back and said yes, give her a dose of IV Lasix, wait a half-hour, and then do the procedure NOW, not this afternoon. So they did it around 10:30, and it was satisfying to see the awesome Doctor Li, the Pulmonologist, take 2.5 liters of claret-colored fluid out of her chest cavity. Right there in her hospital room.

She is breathing SOO much better. Her voice is stronger, with far less panting.

She is dry-mouthed now, with very low blood pressure (92/60, it was 70/60 an hour ago - heart rate 94, oxygen is only 90-91 though which I know from Tallis' Children's Hospital days is not great). She is in a lot of pain; in her chest cavity where her right lung is slowly reinflating, and where they stuck her. They are giving her some pain meds.

The diuretics have made her blood thinner, as they were trying to get the fluid out of her chest cavity, but also took it out of her circulatory system. So she is wan and dizzy.

We don't know when she can go home; Doctor Petersen says it will be when she can hike the hallways without being short of breath. Could be as early as tomorrow but I seriously doubt it.

So we are hunkering down for another night here. I am trying to return business calls but it is hard to do a lot of that, as she is wanting me here; she likes it when I read to her. I am pretty much offline for the duration.

I am utterly grateful for the doctors and nurses of Swedish Hospital. And for the amazing procedure, the Thorocentesis, which I believe saved her life today, in my laywoman's mind. SIGH OF RELIEF!!!