Day 30 Middle of the Night Update

If you're awake and receive this in the middle of the night, please just say a little prayer for Chrissie to have an uneventful night!  She has a new nurse who is young and not as experienced as the other nurses, and while she's sweet as can be, she doesn't know Chrissie's history of scaring the heck out of the medical staff with her extreme swings!  Chrissie's blood pressure is at the lower end, and the nurse is trying to follow orders to wean Chrissie from Dopamine, which is a drug that constricts the blood vessels and reduces blood leakage from the vessels, which is a symptom of sepsis, causing low blood pressure.  The nurse turned off the Dopa mine about an hour ago, and Chrissie's blood pressure went too low, so she turned the medicine back on.  Chrissie's blood pressure is sticking right at the lowest "acceptable" rate for her, and I don't want to go to sleep because I want to keep an eye on it, but I'm sleepy.  The nurse will be watching, but I've seen Chrissie flat line in a matter of seconds, and I saw her lose her pulse just 17 hours ago when her blood pressure went too low.  I'm really praying for a good night that is uneventful, so I ask you to join me in that prayer!!!  (The nurse may need to hold off on some of Chrissie's oral pain/sedation meds in the night if her blood pressure remains this low, as those could lower it even further), but that's a balancing act b/c we don't want Chrissie to gain too much movement and start coughing, which could cause her to bleed.

The coagulant factor of the blood tests shows that as a result of the sepsis, the blood is thinner than normal, but not as thin as it was with Heparin.  So, there's still a chance of bleeding in the lungs with the thinner blood, but, of course, we're all praying this won't be the case.  Praying the blood doesn't continue to get thinner and thinner over time as well.

Chrissie's lung x-rays have been her best x-rays yet, so we're really hoping that tomorrow Chrissie will be able to switch back to the conventional ventilator. Of course that will be dependent upon how Chrissie does tonight, whether she has any crises, etc.  Praying for a peaceful, quiet, calm night.  (And if it's not a peaceful night, that God would surround Chrissie with the exact nurses and staff that she needs in order to stabilize her and keep her from harm.)  Praying harder for the peaceful night!!!

Someone asked about the acidotic/alkolotic state and how we know this and what it means.  Chrissie has blood gas tests run every 6 hours (or drawn at extra intervals if adjustments are made to the ventilator and/or meds) to check all kinds of levels, which help the doctors stay on top of any potential problems.  The gasses that were run this morning showed Chrissie was in an acidotic state, which meant her Co2 was too high and her pH was too acidic.  (Google acidosis to learn more).  Not a good state to be in because tissues and organs can die and fail if one remains in that state too long.  But God pulled Chrissie up out of the acidotic state, and her gasses continued to improve every 6 hours  until this evening's blood gas results, which showed they'd improved "too much".  (Meaning they went to the exact opposite end of the spectrum, now having too little Co2 and too much alkalinity in the blood.)  Again, not good.  We need Chrissie to have blood gasses that are balanced between those 2 extremes with a normal pH and normal everything else!!!  A normal Co2 for Chrissie would be between 35-45.  It's been as high as 187 and as low as 25.  The low Co2 blood gas result earlier tonight showed that the oscillator is actually doing too much work for Chrissie, blowing off too much Co2 gas, so they turned down a few of the settings.  Then, an hour after adjusting the settings, they saw her blood gasses were returning more in the normal range.  Her Co2 level was at 37, which is perfect for Chrissie. 

God is good and He is mighty to save.  He has wrapped His loving arms around Chrissie and surrounded her with staff who know how to save lives and work with princesses.  A nurse earlier reminded everyone that Chrissie is the boss around here, and we all do what she says.  I know Chrissie is thrilled that she's finally succeeding at being the boss of everyone!!! :-)

To God be all the glory.  He is mighty to save.  Keep praying...