Something Does Not Feel Right

I mentioned in the blog several weeks ago that I have learned to believe that something was not right whenever Cathy says that "something does not feel right". Last night Cathy began to struggle to catch her breath. The nurse coached and encouraged her to continue throughout the night. In the morning, she turned to me and, nearly in tears, lipped "something does not feel right".

By the time the attending physician came by just before 9 am, Cathy was exhausted from trying to keep her breath. At that time we were not aware that she had also 'spiked' a fever (100.2) during the night. The doctor had Cathy put on the ventilator (over 52 hours on the trach collar by the time they hooked her up to the ventilator). He also put things in motion to perform a bronchoscopy this afternoon. The fever raised concerns over an infection. Cultures from the bronchoscopy, blood samples, and other bodily fluids will not be available for a couple days. In the mean time, different antibiotics have been ordered.

The bronchoscopy was completed by 3 pm. The doctor said that everything looked good inside her lung, possibly even better than during the bronchoscopy performed last Tuesday. He did say that the lung may be slightly collapsed. This could be a manifestation of the re-profusion injury. Having her rest overnight on the ventilator should reverse this collapse.

There is an eight-hundred pound gorilla in the corner of this room. Besides the concern over infection, there is also a concern for rejection. This gorilla will remain sitting in the corner until the samples taken during today's bronchoscopy are analyzed. Monkey: Go Away!