Just returned from the hospital, Andrea was not asleep when we left, she had a busy day today. this morning's x-ray showed Andrea had developed a small pneumo thorax at her right lung so a small drain tube was installed below her right arm, half way down,between her ribs. This condition happens when a small pocket of air is trapped around the lungs and inhibits lung expansion. The air might have entered around one of her chest drain tubes which were put in at surgery time. She had 3 installed then and the last one was removed only yesterday, so together with being ventilated she may have siphoned a tiny bit of air into her chest cavity and it settled at one spot at her right lung. She showed signs of improvement very soon and her ventilator has been gradually turned down today and hopefully she can be extubated tomorrow. That will make her feel a lot better, as it is not a nice thing to have pushed down your throat and sticking out of your mouth 24 hours a day. Her blood pressure has come up to a healthier level with a little help from medication, which they are weaning her from. She has responded well to antibiotics, her white cell count has come down, her color has improved, the whites of her eyes are also not as yellow as they were. Heart Mate II is working well, seems to be providing fairly good circulation all around. She is still very weak, and it takes only small things to become real setbacks for her, so she is not out of the woods yet. They also have very strict rules about how long lines can be left in arteries and veins, if left too long they seem to be good places for bacteria to gather, so today her lines were all removed and new ones replaced in their locations. Nevertheless the last days have seemed to be very very long, imagine how long time must seem for Andrea lying in bed for days, watching the clock inexorably going around. Our prayer is for strength for Andrea to patiently endure her suffering and not to become too depressed.
Thanks, Maynard
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