Bouncing pretty happily into Danny's room just before lunchtime Thursday, I was alarmed as soon as I neared the bed. Danny's chest was moving up and down in a laborious fashion, and I could hear wheezing and crackling sounds. That little indentation between the collar bones was sucking in a lot when he inhaled. When I touched him he felt very hot. His hands were still open, palm down, not clenched. He looked pale and felt clammy. Then a nurse came in and told me I would have to step out in a moment because they were going to do some sort of procedure to look down into his left lung and maybe suction stuff out. She told me he had a staph infection in the secretions from the left and likely was developing pneumonia. The sedation was being turned back on and the ventilator was also going to be set back again to do all the work. All I could think of was how well he'd been looking the day before, and how happy I was. I left him the night before and this was what happened while I was gone. I almost felt responsible because I left him, even though I knew logically that that was silly. And I should have guessed something was definitely brewing, being a nurse myself, because of the constant fevers. I realized this was what the nurses meant when they said this would be a rollercoaster ride.
During the course of Friday they sent him for another CAT scan of the head and chest and a chest x-ray, which confirmed a pretty serious pneumonia in the left lung. The cerebral pressure monitor was put back into his head, which concerned me as well. A doctor came in from the neuro team and explained that what they needed to do was place Danny back into a drug induced coma, so that his body and brain could rest. All the watching and waiting for five days, seeing him seeming to start coming out of it, and now knocked back down. I was angry, but I didn't know at whom. No one I guess...just angry. The doctor said there would be no more responding until they lifted the sedation, but that progress would hopefully begin again as it had before once they did. I was just sooo sad.
cat scan head/chest 2day. Brain no worse. Cerebral pressure line back in. Scan shows bad pnemonia lower L lung. They put him in drug induced coma. He was workin 2 hard 2 breath on his own, antibiotics, vents doin all the work. Needs rest. Dr said progress should continue once coma reversed. We'll see no response like before. God bless all drs n nurses for their great care n my family n friends for prayers
Facebook on December 10, 2010 at 2:18pm
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