9.22.2009

It's getting better

Finally a doctor (critical care doctor) speaks up this morning in the rounds and makes some drastic changes. For 2 days they have been giving him same BP meds and nothing getting better. Yesterday they had to add one that only comes in an IV drip for temporary period and that was only thing helping it from being extremely high. But he cannot leave ICU with that so something had to be done. The dr. changed his BP meds, took him off Coreg all together, increased one of them, took one away and added a new one. BTW this doctor was also the one who finally took the plunge and took out the breathing tube. He said to back off the IV one slowly and get him out of ICU! Way to be a doctor man! And guess what? It worked! So tonight he is off IV and BP is decent and stable. They should move him to regular room tomorrow. And I hope home soon. This experience was so much worse than the Nephrectomy surgery. I regret us both saying that "the worst is over" because that certainly was not true.

Last night he still had bad dreams and woke up not knowing exactly where he was but he saw the poster, it calmed him down and he went back to sleep. He said the simple poster has meant so much in keeping him feeling safe. He wants me to post it on here when he comes home and share with people who may be in situation where they are drugged and alone in hospital. At least he didn't get out of bed and was able to remember without someone telling him what was happening. That alone makes me relieved.

He had a really good day: he was cracking up at Monty Python movie when I got there, he ate well without problems, he had lots of visitors from work, and he called and spoke with Roan since it was his 4th Birthday. He really felt the need to speak to Rob and John and anyone who was with him when the seizure happened because he is so freaked out about it. I think it really helped to talk with them. Tom visited for awhile too and that was comforting because Tom was there for the first unpleasant visit to the ICU when his cyst burst. He is so worried about coming back to work and getting jobs done it's going to be hard to stop him from going too soon. He keeps acting like he's going back to work in a day or two.

I think we may have a new possible cause for the seizure- the high blood pressure. It was like pulling teeth to get the Nephrologist to admit it was actually possible, but we will review with Dr. Russo and see what he thinks.

Other big news...my cousin Jennifer who lives in VA is a match for donating kidney to Bruce! There is a looooong way to go from initial match to transplant but this gives some hope and we could use that right now.

4 comments:

  1. Hooray for so many things! Glad the poster is being helpful!!It is a simple technique used for dementia patients who are often confused and disoriented. I wrote a long comment yesterday but it apparently got lost in the blogosphere. Researched something called parasomnias (google it and look for the article written by Sat Sharma). It describes a sleep behavior disorder that is a "dream enacting disorder that includes yelling, kicking, punching, sitting up, jumping out of bed, arm flailing, and grabbing." It also states that an acute form is often a result of "withdrawal from ethanol and/or SEDATIVE HYPNOTIC DRUGS". That sure sounds like your descriptions of Bruce's status on arousal from sleep. It also discusses restless leg syndrome associated with end stage renal disease. Very good article. I can't imagine why the Drs did not think of hypertensive encephalopathy first thing as a potential seizure cause. It was the most obvious. I had asked your Mom about Bruce's BP when I talked to her early on but she thought it was still in the "too low" phase. Hang on to this doc who is not afraid to listen to others and try something when all else is failing. Hoping for this potential match to work out.

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  2. That's such great news that your cousin is a potential donor! We'll be praying that everything works out! I'm glad his BP is stable now. Hang on to that critical care doc...sounds like he may be useful in the future too!

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  3. Awesome news Amy.
    Sean

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  4. Wow!! Great news--That is wonderful!! Finally some good things happening!!! amy

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