3/22/12

I am looking at a dry erase board in Piper's room that has a list of topics that my wife has left for me to blog about. I will attempt to put said list into paragraph form now.

A couple of positive notes, Piper's chest X-ray's continue to look clear. We know she has some secretions in her lungs, but the x-ray's are not showing signs of wide spread infection in her lungs as they did earlier this week. The infection(s?) in her lungs were on of her biggest obstacles for a while. If she wasn't able to breathe then we could not take her off of the vent. That seems to be turning a corner. Other good news is her blood pressure (BP) has gotten better throughout the day and is looking pretty normal this evening. Her blood cultures grew a strep bacteria, there are many kinds and this is not the same bug you get when you have strep throat, a few days ago and the docs switched her to that much stronger antibiotic she once had an allergic reaction to. She did not have a reaction this time and her subsequent cultures have come back negative which means the antibiotic is working!

OK, that's three of the six off my list on the board.

One of the challenges with this whole process in the ICU is managing PJ's intake and output. Because of all the fluid the kid has had on her lungs she needed a diuretic, but her BP needed more fluids because it has been very low at times. So, it has been a balancing act and she has been doing very well with that the past two days, but today she has started to look a little puffier and by this evening she is definitely looking a little swollen. The doc on tonight is not quite sure why, but he stopped her NG feeds (that's her formula through a tube) to see if maybe that added a little to much fluid today. We are basically watching her right now, but aren't exactly sure what is going on there.

Her poor little skin begun to peel, we think partially from that nasty rash she had, and is now into full shedding mode. It can look pretty rough, but other than itching a little doesn't seem to bother her to much. I think the good news from that is she will have some very soft new baby skin when she is done shedding her old skin.

Another "side effect" of being sedated and lying in a bed all day is developing sores on your body. We have noticed a sore on the back of her head this morning that seems to have been caused by laying on her NG tube. It looks like because she was so puffy from all the fluids that it indented into her head a little and has created a wound there. It is pretty ugly, but they have covered it with a breathable bandage and are trying not to lay her on anything so it can heal.

Other than these things we are just waiting to hear back about her heart echo that was done this morning. She has had some pulmonary hyper tension and they are checking her heart in relation to that I believe.

The rest of the Fam is juggling all this mess and taking it one day at a time. Linley continues to amaze us with her ability to adjust go with the flow. She did get to spend some time with Piper and watch a movie a few nights ago. She has been really sweet when she is in here with her by talking to her and holding her hand. I know they are missing each other too.ink

I think that is all the items on my list. Good night.

Chad