5/31 9pm Update - Awake and Responsive - Smiling, Nodding, Squeezing Hands...

They allowed mom to wake up and visit with us for a short while tonight. Her eyes were bright, she was smiling, nodding (even laughing at bad jokes), and squeezing our hands. It gave us all much hope for a happy outcome. When she is awake, her BP drops, so they will continue to sedate her so she can rest and recover comfortably. Watch for more updates. Nights are scary. Becky and I are staying tonight. Keep your fingers crossed with us.

5/31 6pm Update - some improvements - Dr is 'cautiously optomistic'

This afternoon they did a cardiocentesis (Google says it's surgical puncture into the pericardial space for the aspiration of fluid). This has resulted in the removal of over 500mL (that is 16+ oz) of fluids (good news). Her blood pressure is improving enough to where they have taken her off of two of the three meds to control that (more good news). Her kidneys are producing more (also good news). Her temp is down from high 102s to 99 (great news). She is down from 100% ventilator assist to 40% and we expect the ventilator tube will be removed soon - which maybe the best news of all, simply because momma HATES having that tube down her throat. We will keep the news coming via this blog and for my admittedly technology adverse Uncles, we will call with important updates daily. Keep sending the happy thoughts and prayers.

5/31 mid-morning

They allowed mom to wake up for a moment to make sure she would. She responded to questions, squeezed hands, smiled and pointed on cue. That is encouraging. Then they re-administered the sedative to make her comfortable. More as we know it.

Mom's heart is failing fast - Send prayers

No good news. At 11:00 last night (Saturday), Mom was doing pretty good - her BP was around normal for her. They gave her her night meds, which included a new anti-biotic, Lortab, Ambien, and Amapriptilene (don't hold me to the spelling). A few minutes later, she decided to try laying on her stomach to relieve the sharp pain between her shoulder blades. When she did that, her BP seemed to drop, so she rolled back onto her back but her BP took another nose dive. A couple of minutes later, it was down to 60/30, her o2 saturation fell to under 40, her heart rate slowed to 20 beats per minute and she lost consciousness. At that point, nurses came out of the woodwork! There were probably 8 of them in the room trying to help her. They moved her to ICU to try to help her. After a few hours in ICU, without improvement, they sent her by ambulance to a bigger hospital - the one she was in for heart surgery. At this point, the doctors say her heart is failing. She is sedated and they are trying to relieve the pressure from the fluids, while trying to rehydrate her. I will continue to post as updates become available.

5/30 Pressure rising - and falling - and rising...

Precious Becky stayed with Mom through the night. I relieved her at about 4pm. She took Smokey Joe to her house and will stay home for some rest tonight. I (Merri), will stay with her tonight. When I arrived, they reported that pneumonia is no longer suspected, but she does have some kind of infection (known by her elevated white count). Also, at my arrival, they were threatening to move her to ICU if her BP didn't get better. The very next reading showed improvement. It has been up to 133/86. But after she sat up to eat dinner (she had maybe 3 bites), her BP dropped to 97/67. She is back down and we are watching for improvement. Keep sending the warm thoughts and prayers.

5/29 Back to the ER with difficulty breathing

Mom had spent Thurs and Friday nights at Becky's, but Saturday morning, she felt like she wasn't getting enough oxygen, so Becky took her home where she could use the Oxygen concentrator to give her some help. Four hours later, she hadn't improved. Leon and I came up to visit. Becky reported that they hadn't been able to get an oxygen saturation read from meter. We tried on got get a reading from her finger, toe, nose, and ear. It worked on everybody else, so it wasn't the meter. With Leon's prompting, mom agreed to go back to the ER. The ER staff told us that pulse/oxy meters don't work if your hands are cold. Using the ER meter, her O2 saturation was good - but her blood pressure was very low. They did some blood work and took x-rays. They took her for a walk without oxygen which really wore her out and after seeing the internist on call, decided to admit her. Overnight, her BP continued to drop - going as low as 55/33 (yikes)!

4/22 Back to the Hospital with Congestive Heart Failure

Mom found it harder and harder to breathe, even with oxygen - so back to the ER where she was admitted with Congestive Heart Failure. That means she had water on her lungs and around her heart, making those organs overworked and inefficient. Medication (Lasiks -sp?) worked to relieve that pressure and the last few weeks mom had regained some strength and was no longer dependent on her oxygen tank. Fast forward to 5/29 - see next post.

4/13 Ablation seems to have helped the racing heart situation - yeah!

I am adding a few 'headlines' to play catch-up