Noddy Hospital Status

Here is the latest news. Thank you, D__.

D___ at about 10:15 AM today, Eastern Daylight Time wrote:

My mom's condition is very serious but with some hope and recent slight improvement.

Most this information is from my 9:00am conversation with Steve, the ICU nurse, some comes from visits yesterday.

Right now my mother is "riding the respirator", the respirator is breathing for her. This is expected because she is on morphine to limit her pain and diprivan to keep her from moving. Yesterday on a lower dose of morphine there were periods were she was doing some of her own breathing.

She is on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norepinephrine to keep her blood pressure high. Yesterday she needed 18 mcg/minute of Norepinephrine (levophed) to keep her blood pressure up. This morning 10/mcg/minute was doing the job.

Until Thursday afternoon, My mom was in shape to work directly with her doctors, so their reluctance to return my calls was forgivable.

...

I'll try to post status at least nightly.....

He also passed the link to this topic to close family members, so I suspect they'll be reading along a bit. Welcome to all of them.

I'm sorry to share the current very discouraging news through email.

Most of this information comes from conversation with the Dr A, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist who is in practice with my mother's primary care Dr

The ICU receptionist offered a spontaneous and glowing endorsement of his skills. Apparently he did a good job with her very ill daughter.

As I understand things, Dr A reports that one lung is very damaged. Blood pressure is being maintained by massive intravenous transfusions of fluid. She is leaking fluid from the abdominal surgery site and from the chest tube approximately as fast as it is transfused.

Dr A does not believe my mother will be able to live without a respirator.

As I understand the day shift ICU nurse and his memory of his conversation with surgeon doing rounds this morning, the outlook is a bit more positive.

The basis for optimism is not clear to me. Friday night after the surgery, I was able to talk to the surgeon. The surgeon said she did not find the place where the bowel was perforated and generally found it difficult to be hopeful about outcomes or even diagnosis.

I am positioned to catch the surgeon in her early morning rounds tomorrow.

We are scheduled for a meeting with the Drs tomorrow (2008-08-04) at 2pm. Before then I am told it is likely that the Drs will reach a consensus.

My mother has a living will. We've had many conversations about this issue both recently and over the years. My mother's wishes in this regard are very clear. She does not wish extraordinary measures to add a short painful time to her life or to spend resources that could be spent on somebody with better prospects.

I will post more information as I am able tomorrow. It will probably be late.

....Sweethearts, I really wish that was not the news, but it is. I will keep you informed as I can.