6:15am 2-18-19 weds (post got lost)

This was started weds morning and all but the first sentence or two was vaporized, I will try to recreate this post now ,weds evening, it may be a bit jumbled and out of order.started writing on weds morning.

Good morning to all FOE's. (friends of emily's). This has been a good night in just got a set of new lungs sort of way. Emily is deep asleep at the moment and has been for a couple of hours. Her pain has been well managed, as they say, for the night. Still in ICU with her own nurse. Medical stuff : She is laying flat on her back with her four IV sites and eight IV pumps and eight bags on one side of the bed. On the other a second IV stand w two more pumps for the second of three units of blood she is receiving and the  for her mix of pain meds. The big one is morphine which is your friend when you need it, relief. This is on a demand PCA button. (she needs it she pushes). Once awake last night Emily did some intense negotiation with the nurses and docs  of the pain management team (small pack of white jackets). This  is something Emily is good at. She can rattle off her past meds and experiences with each. She deals from a position of strength and experience, when it comes to post op pain and distress she has been there. She also has four chest tubes. These are soft tubes about .5 inch in diameter. They go in between her ribs, two left and two right, high and low. the tubes are hooked to four collection devices which are taking some measurements and then suction is applied. This drains blood and fluid from out of the pleural spaces in her chest cavity. They hurt her. Feel your ribs and how tight the space between each, not much room for plumbing. The epidural, which works on a relatively specific area, really helps control this pain.

On one side of the head of the bed is the breathing machine which was hooked to the tube that led to the intubation. It is pretty sophisticated, it allows the medical staff to set respiration rate and volume among other things. It has a very sensitive alarm, if you even consider not breathing well it lets out a howl that could make King Tut sit up and suck in some fresh desert air. While it was helping Emily breathe it puffed away softly. A bit ominous and a bit comforting at the same time. On the other side is a monitor displaying vital signs. When Emily was heavily sedated it was hard not to just stare at this, I think the three of thought that if we kept an eye on it we could make sure that her vitals stayed good. She had some issues with low BP, I think when her dropped a point or two Peg Nicky and mine went up about twenty. I am surprised that one of our heads did not explode. Right at the head of the bed is another rack of hardware, suction devices and other stuff. More stuff than NASA had to get John Glenn into orbit and way more computing power than when the  Apollo was in trouble. All this stuff is more than a bit scary, how could one petite woman need all this stuff? But this stuff and the nurses and techs that run the show along with the docs and surgeons are what have helped make this miracle. It is an incredible synergy. The nurses are remarkable. Their shift is twelve hours and in ICU for a transplant patient it is pretty non stop and intense. They are making some very serious medical decisions one moment and tucking a blanket up the next. Emily has been very lucky with each shift change as yet another fine nurse introduces their self for the next half day.  Each shift has had very different needs as Emily's condition has evolved. 

Peg, Nicky and I have been catching a bit of sleep as we can. The ICU waiting area is the place of choice. It is at the junction of two wings of the hospital, the ICU and a wing for those recovering from thoracic surgery. There are three elevators serving this spot. You hope to get one of the three couches. Two are near the automatic doors to ICU. They make a pleasant thumping noise sort of like dinosaurs chasing wounded prey through the jungle. Makes for creative nightmares. The third couch is near a huge saltwater aquarium gurgling pleasantly away. No dinosaur dreams there you just gotta get up to pee all night. Maybe some dreams with the music from Jaws.  The couches are in three pieces carefully crafted to fit no part of the human anatomy. Each time you roll over the pieces move just a little bit, threatening to swallow you up. They are just large enough to fit no one but somehow Peg and Nicky both slept on the same couch for part of Monday night. It is hard to relax with the elevators coming and going letting a new crop of visitors unload  every few minutes to check out your snoring and drooling. P & N rented an apartment for us today at Transplant House. This is a place set up just for families in our situation. 

It is about 9:30pm now and Emily is hoping for another walk soon. It will take Coco her current nurse about twenty minutes to assemble all the stuff for the walk. Sort of like launching the lunar lander. Her pain is still doing well. Her appetite good with the anti rejection meds havie her really wound up and talking away. I th

Well it is now thurs morn. and I admit that this will never get finished. The walk was great. We looked like those old timey parades when then circus comes to town. We thinking about getting a couple of Clyesdales to haul stuff. I pretty sure my job will be to follow behind with a wheel barrow and shovel and clean up. we all got our skills. Peg is getting a well deserved nap now

 after covering some of the long am hours. Her turn to be on display for the elevator people and packs of white jackets (the early morning hours are when they are most active and alert. Later in the day they tend to group in twos and threes and travel in stair ways communicating in odd languages full of big words) there are also packs of blue backed scrub people. They are everywhere and do everything they seem to never pause. Some of the nurse have evolved(that wouldn't happen in Kansas) to a more colorful plummage  and sport all sorts of colors. lizard green being a fav.

I give up and will post this now. The circus is preparing to move for the first show of the day.

For you river runners or sailors we look like a poorly rigged boat that has way more line than it needs. More Later.

Keith