Long Day But Making Progress

I arrived at 7:30 a.m. today, and Jiliang had her breathing tube removed today around 9:30 a.m. It is definitely a step in the right direction. However, it was very scary for her. She was breathing very labored and had so much swelling in her throat that she was making a scary sound. They gave her a breathing treatment, and later determined that she also needed a steroid treatment at 2:00 to help her swelling, which was 1 of 4 treatments. The steroid didn't really do its job until around 6:00 p.m. It had been a long day, filled with pain from her persistent pneumonia cough and discomfort from decreasing her Morphine and other drugs. It was hard for her to breath and created a heart rate of about 180 at rest. Luckily, it came down once the steroid decreased the swelling. It was nice to see her finally be in a relaxed state.

Now, she can continue to her recovery process without that uncomfortable tube. It will probably take a few days to get her breathing situated, and to get her voice back. However, she still has a feeding tube in her nose.

Amazingly, she was on 10 drug pumps last week, but she is only on 4 now. She is getting some through the IVs too, as ordered, but this is a huge milestone. Because she has been on Morphine for over a week, they are weining her down and plan to put her on Methadone to avoid her from enduring withdrawals.

Today was a long, long day. She was more sedate today, but more aware of all of the medical tortures (chest tubes, pounding on chest to break up secretions, suctions up the nose and down the throat, etc.) and fear of the unknowns; as well as her fear of what has happened to her: surgery. I was with her all morning, afternoon and evening. I was planning on staying the night, but decided to go home, since tomorrow will be another long day, and she will be less sedated during the day. When I left tonight at 10 p.m., she was doing well. I just called to do a status check and she is still comfortable and resting peacefully.

Jiliang hates coughing. It hurts for her to cough, so she tries to avoid it. She also holds her urine. I have no worries about her regressing back to diapers after this as a few nurses warned during pre-op. She holds it until she cannot do it any more. Then, she gets a mad face and becomes a victim to a diaper after holding for hours to her defeat. Then, she gets a sad, shameful face, because she is upset about going in a diaper. My poor girl. I wish she didn't feel so bad. She is such a good girl.

I am hoping that tomorrow will be better for her. If she has breathing troubles tonight, they could intubate her again, but I don't anticipate that, because she is doing well. Around 3 p.m., however, the afternoon thought that they were going to put the tube back in. Ugghh! Luckily, Jiliang made a huge turnaround.
I am hoping that her infection subsides, and that her left lung sounds more clear tomorrow. I am not sure why there are less breath sounds there. There is still a chest tube there, so hopefully it is just swelling. Anyhow, they will do an x-ray of her chest in the morning. As for the breathing, it sounds much better, and she is looking comfortable.

I am hoping that her chest looks good in the morning, and her breathing is going well. I can't wait to be able to communicate with her. She lipped "Mama" today and only a whisper came out. Then, she lipped something else and looked at Scott and T.J. I had to tell her not too talk, because I could it was painful for her to talk.
It was a very rough day, yet a very successful day for her. She may have a long recovery ahead still - it's hard to say. All I can do is keep you posted each day as we learn to accept this road to recovery one step at a time.

She has had really great nurses all day. By the way, it didn't get passed on to the newest nurse that Jiliang was a flight risk. No one is supposed to leave her unattended. If they step out, someone needs to step in. The nurse told me not to worry about her alarms, because if they go off and she is out of the room, the desk sees them. I made sure to relay the message that Jiliang is a flight risk, and no one is to leave her unattended. She promised not to after that. We might not be so lucky the next time she decided to fall out of bed. In fact, she tried it yesterday with me. When she goes to the regular floor, one of us will have to be there 24/7.

Thank you for your amazing prayers. I will keep you all posted. Hopefully, this all makes sense, because I am falling asleep writing it. :)
Jill