Cathy was on the trach collar for over twenty seven hours yesterday. The CO2 concentration in her blood was 68 (still improving). However, she was very exhausted after this length of time on the collar. She was not able to sleep very well through the night. After that much time on the trach collar, breathing is a conscious effort for her. She keeps herself awake out of fear she will stop breathing.
When Cathy was taken off the trach collar this morning, they put her on the Bi-Pap machine instead of the ventilator.
Dr. Saggar dropped by to check on Cathy and to give a few words of encouragement. Among these were "You are getting better". He also told Cathy that she needs to be rested nightly. Pushing herself to stay on the trach collar only makes her overly tired. This will limit the amount of effort she can direct towards building her strength. He wants Cathy to be rested on the Bi-Pap machine for several hours every night. Cathy has been resisting being rested on the ventilator. She does not like the feeling of the ventilator breathing for her.
Dr. Saggar also put Cathy on an anabolic steroid. This will build some lean muscle mass for Cathy and help her develop some strength. On the down-side, this will disqualify Cathy for the Beijing Olympics.
2 comments:
The Doc says you are getting better. Great news !
Cathy, I can understand why you cannot sleep but you need your rest to continue your path to recovery.
I know how stubborn you can be but let that ventilator do the breathing so you can build your strength.
About the Beijing Olympics, we are too old to qualify anyway he-he.
Woohoo!!! I'm back from vacation and you've been a busy woman! Wow! I say forget the Olympics, you're headed for a world record. Move over Rocky Balboa!
I'm so excited to hear all this good news! It's such a stark contrast to just 2 weeks ago when I was there. I can tell that you are giving it your all...just don't push too hard. As you know too well, success requires patience!
I love you SO much!
XOXOXOX
BonBon
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