"We Love Andrea" was created to update Andrea's friends as she went through a difficult journey. After her second heart transplant when her pulse began to speed up she was given a pacemaker, then a Heart Mate II or LVAD. She was in the Stollery Children's Hospital, then the Mazankowski heart unit in Edmonton, Alberta for 7 months. However, she peacefully died on May 11, 2011 when the rest of her heart and other organs could handle the strain no longer. If you come to this blog, pray for her family and friends, remember to tell your friends you love them, then sign your organ donor card.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Trache Out! Bilirubin Down More


Just returned from Andrea's bedside, it has gotten very cold again, -30C this morning, should warm up by the weekend.  Well the day had it's good and bad, good news her trache came out today, the bad news was that she had a new PIC line installed.  Pump doctor thought it was arranged she would be given medazallam which is a very light sedation, just enough to sleep and she would not remember or feel the pain as it was going in.  The doctor who put it in insisted that would require an anesthetist, her blood pressure might drop, etc etc so  they only gave her local freezing and she has enough scar tissue already, so it was very painful for her.  Usually dialysis is done, starting with setting up at 7 bells, but they had an overload of patients to do, so hers was not done till the afternoon.  As I have mentioned earlier, she gets very cold from it, so after she warmed up she went to sleep for a few hours.  One other good point is that her bilirubin was down to 150 this morning.  I think in order for her to progress more they are going to need to pursue her pain control more aggressively, they started her on a fentenal 72 hour, 12 mg patch for pain control. hopefully that will take off the edge more effectively.  That's all for tonight, thanks for reading my nightly epistle.
 
Regards, Maynard

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