"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
--Jeremiah 29:11

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Rounds are Complete

The team of docs just finished rounding. Connie was awakened at 6am for his blood draw. The flabotomist (sp?) did a fabulous job. She found a vein right away in his arm, not hand where it is more painful. It took all of 30 seconds. Then they called x-ray back up to get a picture of his chest and he was just about to drift back off to sleep when they came to round on him. The plan for the day is to check his labs before restarting/deciding the coumadin dose, restarting the dig and enalapril today, coming off milrinone and watching function. He's due for an echo later this morning. Once he's off the milrinone there is no reason for him to be in this "fishbowl" (CICU) according to Dr. Van Hare, so he will likely move out to the floor later today. No timeline has been given on how long we can expect to be there.

He's watching Bob the Builder, playing an alphabet game on Greg's iPod and thinking about drifting back off to sleep.

As far as the hyperactivity we saw last night, Dr. Checchia said, "Well, we did give him an electric shock," which is rather stimulating! And Dr. Van Hare added that a lot of times the drugs they use to induce sleep for procedures for them to sleep half the day end up keeping them up half the night.

I will say, it was pretty quiet around here last night. I decided not to ask for a new nurse and it all worked out just fine. She even advocated for him a few times, once when they came for x-ray around 5 and she knew he had labs scheduled for 6 so she asked x-ray to come back later so he could sleep. Also, when I had questions about whether or not he would be getting his dig or coumadin before bed she went and got an answer right away. Our experience in Michigan was that sometimes you had to wait quite awhile for nurses to ask MD's things, so that was a nice surprise.

3 comments:

L. Pappalardo said...

All sounds like good news! The sleep thing will work itself out, but of course, not before you are exhausted! Why don't you let me come relieve you today so you can nap? Even if for an hour or so? I know you need the sleep. Re: the custodian coming in at 3am - just make a BIG sign that you can post on your door when he is sleeping that says STAY OUT unless absolutely necessary. We did that at LP and it worked wonders. They wanted to come in one night and do non-critical respiratory therapy at 10pm and I was like UHHH, NO! Talk to you today! Things sound really good! Van Hare sounds like a rockstar, by the way.

Maureen Q said...

Was thrilled to read the latest. Greg's post was very dear as well. I agree with LP...make a LARGE sign to keep the unnecessary people out during the night!

Will keep the prayers flowing from all directions here. Peace be with you.

Dietrichs said...

We're so happy to hear Connie's procedure went well yesturday and hope that you'll be able to bring him home very soon! Let us know if there's anything we can do to help.

Sending love and prayers,
The Dietrichs