Another Rough Day

Jolianne has more fluid on her lungs today. They did her daily chest x-ray this morning and saw that it was cloudy on the left side. They ordered a Chest Sonogram and found that she did indeed have fluid on her left side. They said that she also has more fluid on her right side. They are going to discuss it with the Attending Physicians and see what they want the next step to be. They also had to do a blood transfusion on her today. It has become a weekly process for her to get blood. She does do better after she has received her new blood, so that is a good thing. The bad part is that she only has one point of access now so they had to stop her pain meds to give her the blood. About an hour into the process they had to stop the blood and give her more pain meds. I hate that she is pain and requires the medication regularly. You can really see it in her face that she hurts and needs to be comforted. Because she is on the vent right now and I can't hold her, all that I can do is stroke the side of her head and tell her it is ok. Her belly is still extended. The nurse told me today that her intestines are swollen because they are having to readjust to the repair of her collateral arteries. They are watching it closely and measuring her belly every 4 hours. The swelling in her hands has gone down today. They have called in an occupational therapist to start working with her right arm. They are going to be doing exercises with her to get her used to using that arm again now that the clot is gone. Her little hand was all wrinkled from her skin being stretched out for so long and then going back to normal. I hope that they can figure something out with the fluid on the lungs. We aren't really sure what the next step will be. They may have to go ahead with the 3rd procedure pretty quickly. I don't know though. They have always told us the bigger she gets the more problems she will have. I hope that they can get her to a good point soon. It seems like it is always something lately.