Day 10

This morning Rosina was moved to the ICU. As part of her “vitals” - temperature, blood pressure, pulse – they also measure her oxygen intake. It is normally around 100% or maybe 98%. This morning it was at 78%. Dr. Forman was there and they started by giving her an oxygen mask. It brought the levels up, but without the mask, they went back down, which meant something is wrong with her breathing. They brought her downstairs to the ICU. They gave her a tube in her throat and a ventilator – a breathing machine - the whole deal. They did a bronoscopy where they look inside the throat and lungs with a camera and take pictures. She has some bleeding in her lungs. They’re not sure yet what it is causing it yet, probably some kind of infection – bacterial, fungal, etc., but the test results aren’t in quite yet. Her heart is okay (another possible reason for weak oxygen intake). They just need to be extremely careful and diligent because her body has no defenses right now. She is basically knocked out as is normal for someone with a tube in their throat. For a while they keep your wrists secured to the side of the bed so you don’t accidentally wake up and pull at the tube. They took those off.

Okay, update, Dr. Forman just came by (I'm in her room). He said that this happens sometimes, but not often, as a symptom of a transplant. But they don’t really know why. Most likely there is an infection that is causing the bleeding. They send the info from the broncoscopy to several departments to assess. An infectious disease doctor has been by, a cardiologist, and the doctor who did the broncoscopy. Dr. Foreman said that she has been doing well today and they’ve been able to lower the amount of oxygen that they’re pushing down to the minimum level, which is good. She will probably be on the ventilator until Wednesday. It’s an odd machine – it breathes. In fact, if I’m sitting on a stool next to her bed holding her hand, the vent on the side on the machine exhales her breath right on me.

So, it’s not a panic time, but nobody wants to go to the ICU, patient or visitor. From day zero (November 9th) to around day seventeen (November 26th) you are walking through some dry dry land. But – everything seems to be okay.


xo
ph