HELLO !!!

I know I haven't written on here before, but my sister keeps griping at me so I thought I would just finally sit down and write something.

I have started clinicals and am loving it. I have been handing the Dr's the instruments needed. I have also been allowed to retract, cut, and suture. So far i have worked with appoximately 20 different surgeons. I have perfomed everything from total knee replacements to colon resections and mastectomys.

Last weekend I got another puppy. His name is E.J. He is an Australian Shepherd and is 8 weeks old. I will post a picture later.

Right now, I am on my way to go play soccer in an indoor soccer league.

I will try to post more later and hopefully a little more frequently !!! ha ha

GOING HOME !!!!

LaShae is finally going home !!! They have removed the Central Line and are waiting IMpatiently for transport to take her to the truck. YEAH !!!

Not Home....

Well, they did the CT Scan this morning and found 2 abcesses in her abdomen. Oral antibiotics won't touch them so they have to treat them with IV antibiotics. They contacted the Surgeon and decided to do a needle aspiration to drain the abcesses. Mom just called and said the nurse told them they should be doing it in the next couple of hours. They will take her down to Radiology to perform the procedure.

At this point Her spirits are low !!! She is sooo tired of being sick and ready to go home. They thought she would be able to be home today...but...not yet. Will just have to see what tomorrow holds.

Home in Sight !!!

Well, Mom just called me and said that they took the drain tube out this afternoon. YEAH!!! The Infectious Disease Doctor said that they will do the CT Scan on Wednesday instead of Friday and if everything looks good on the CT Scan she MAY get to go home Sometime late Wednesday !!!

Update

I spent a couple of hours with LaShae yesterday and she seems to be recovering very nicely. Her color was a lot better and she is off of the oxygen and IV fluids. She still has the central line because they are still giving her pretty much round the clock antibiotics. Yesterday she got up and walked the whole length of the hall down to the elevator (she is in the last room of the hall.) So, that was good. She still is not eating much...food makes her nauseated and nothing smells good or tastes good but they do not seem to be worried about that at all after what she has been through. She is still in some pain and they are primarily controlling that with a pill. Yesterday she slept about 6 to 7 hours. At lunch she was nauseated so they brought her some phenergan and it knocked her out !!!! The nurse said next time they were only going to give her half !!!

Out of ICU !!!

LaShae got to go to a room around 6pm last night and get out of ICU !!! YEAH !!! Hopefully now she can get some rest. I talked to her this morning and she got to take a shower last night and she said she washed her hair like 5 or 6 times !!! I had to laugh. She said the shower was wonderful !!! She also got to try and eat "real" food...not liquids...and NOT chocolate pudding for breakfast...YUCK !!!

The results of the CT scan showed that she still had fluid on her abdomen and they will continue to watch that and make sure it doesn't turn into an abcess. Her white blood cells were elevated yesterday morning so they are doing a culture to see what is going on there. She is still having some trouble with her breathing but it is MUCH better. She is still on oxygen with the nasal cannula. She is also still having pain issues and now that she is not in ICU she has to wait a longer to get her pain meds when she calls for them. I think Mom is having a harder time dealing with that situation..ya know Mom's tend to be a little impatient when their children need something that will help them !!!

She had several visitors last night so the kids and I didn't go up. Maybe we can all go and see her tonight. Funny story...Maegen just couldn't understand why she couldn't go see LaShae when she was in ICU..and I was trying to explain it to a 6 year old that there are just too many really sick people and we didn't want her to get sick and she just wasn't old enough..well her response was with hands on hip: "When I'm 26 can I go see LaShae?" I just had to laugh...26....where in the world did she get that number from?

Update

LaShae didn't have a very good day yesterday. She is still in ICU. The Doctors called in a Pulmonologist because of her lack of breathing and he felt like she just had fluid on her lungs so he ordered Lasix and another X-Ray today so that he could compare the two and see if it is just fluid and if the Lasix was working. They took the X-Ray at 2am this morning. Her blood count was down again yesterday so they ordered another CT scan and 2 units of blood. Still not sure why her blood count is down and trying to figure that part out. They gave her 1 unit of blood yesterday and will give her 1 unit today. They couldn't find a vein yesterday so they had to take her down and get a sub-clavian (Central Line) put in. After they got the sub-clavian in they were able to get her back on her meds. The Lasix seemed to help tremendously. They were able to wean her off of the rebreather oxygen mask to a regular mask and now she is using the nasal cannula. Mom and Dad said that she looked sooo much better last night at 8pm when they got to see her. We still don't have the results of the CT scan but maybe Mom and Dad can find something out when they get to see her at 10am this morning. I talked to LaShae this morning and she sounded better. Exausted....but her voice sounded better. Her Surgeon had already been in and said he felt like she could get out of ICU and go to a room. They were waiting on the other 2 Doctors to release her to the floor. She is still on the nasal cannula and her oxygen level was at 91. Her heart rate is still elevated but it is better..it is about 110-113...which is way down from 160 !!! Her blood pressure looks good..so HOPEFULLY today is the day that things will turn around !!!