Off the Vent - But Wasn't Easy

They took Bailey off the ventilator around 5:00 yesterday afternoon. She was fine for about 10 minutes, then it got scary. (Let me preface by saying she's doing well now.) The pain medication that she was on caused her body to relax so much so that her breathing was slow and shallow which caused CO2 to build up in her system; that caused her PA to shoot up very quickly to 130; she passed out and stopped breathing at that point. The anesthesiologist was right by her bedside running the show the whole time and he stayed very, very calm telling everyone what they needed to do. (I was later quite impressed with their abilities.) They guessed at a dosage of narcane (1/10 of a dose - a drug to get her to start breathing again) which was too high so she started halucinating and going a little nuts, but at least she started breathing again. This all happened in a matter of about 3 to 5 minutes, I think. By the time it was over, we had the anesthesiologist, the surgeon, and the cardiologist together with about 6 other support staff at her bedside. They were all very happy when she was stabilized, but they said that this happens on occasion. (I like my paralegal job.) Our nurse, however, has been here 18 years and she said at the end of the day that it was the worst day in her nursing career. I was surprised, later, at how she handled the situation - she pretty much freaked out, but then again, so did we.

Now that that's over, she got pretty sick to her stomach and was throwing up a lot last night, but that stopped about 9:00 last night. Then her arterial line fell out (no fault of her own) and the night crew tried to put it back in but, unfortunately, failed. The surgeon is coming in this morning to put it back in. I have to say, I was a little frustrated -- ok, mad -- by that time (about 12:30 this morning) but they decided to leave her alone as much as they could but she didn't sleep too well. She's scared and thinks she's going back into surgery for some reason. She's so thirsty and hungry and weak. I can't wait until they start giving her water. She's been sucking on a little bitty sponge about the size of a little sucker.

I am thinking positive that this will be a better day for all of us. I'm hoping that this is the one scare that we will have had to endure. I just can't begin to tell you how scared I was. I didn't want to go back in her room for a while, but finally worked up the courage - or really just decided to jump back in. Scott was in there taking very good care of her at that point while I tried to recoup. Didn't get much sleep last night, but will try to catch naps throughout the day.

I guess we have to take a couple steps back on occasion to move forward -- in all walks of life.

Sorry I didn't post an update yesterday evening - I just wasn't up to it.

Love you all, Angie.