Monday, February 2, 2015

Day 5: Miss Alice the Rock Star

Good news!  She's just rocking it out in trying to get better.  They lowered her PEEP (pressure for the ventilator that keeps her lungs inflated) multiple times today.  A healthy person has a PEEP of 5 to keep their lungs from collapsing.  She started out at 12 this morning, but they have gotten her down to 5 and she's doing very well.  They are hoping to start some breathing trials tomorrow! They had stopped lowering her Dobutamine (last blood pressure med) dosage at 5 but have now progressed to lower it to 1. If she is still tolerating it well by tonight, they will pause it and see how her blood pressure handles being off of the medicine.  I'm telling you, this lady is one strong woman.

The kidney doctor also stopped in and said that her lactic acid levels are looking really good (we aren't really sure what that means, but it sounds good!). When it's time to change the filter cartridge on the continuous dialysis machine, they want to take her off of it and start using a conventional dialysis machine for 4 hours every other day.  This is fantastic news!  They've also started feeding her some nutritional substance which I will liken to gruel or thick baby formula (though we've been calling it Soylent).

All in all, she's made quite a bit of progress today.

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