Night And Day

Last night the doctor did not give Cathy the option to stay off of the Bi-Pap. Cathy was put on respiratory support for several hours to rest her lungs. As a result, when I walked into Cathy's room this afternoon she was refreshed and awake. Yesterday afternoon, Cathy was awake in ten to twenty minute spurts. Tonight she did not even start to dose off until after 7 pm.

The nausea was bothering her less today also. Tonight I brought Cathy a serving of penne pasta with lots of butter and parmesan cheese. She eat almost the entire serving.

Cathy's energy level was back up to where she was able to walk around the unit with the physical therapist again today. The difference between yesterday and today is like night and day.

A PICC line was placed in Cathy's left arm today. She had a PICC line back in July/August, but it was taken out to eliminate a possible source of infection. I guess the risk of infection has been trumped by the need to continually replace Cathy's IV. Cathy is a 'hard stick' when it comes to putting in IV's and drawing blood. Also, her IV's never last as long as the doctors and nurses would like them to: they 'blow-out". The PICC line is similar to an IV. It enters a vein (or maybe its an artery) just below her left bicep. The catheter runs inside the vein, up the arm into a main vein (or artery, I'm crappy at biology) at her neck. The catheter extends down this main vein to a point close to her heart. This PICC line can be left in for extended periods of time (several weeks or a few months). It can be used to introduce medications and to draw blood samples. This will mean a lot less needle sticks for Cathy, and a lot less bruises from all the needle sticks.