The "Infomation Fix"

I find myself unable to start my day until I can get a hold of Crew's nurse. This morning I had to wait through designated shift change (which always makes me crazy). I finally thought it was safe to call and the nurse was busy and I had to call back. Busy?? Busy?? That led me to speculate about all kinds of things. In the ensuing 15 minutes I had drawn all kinds of colorful (and horrible) pictures in my head as to why she was busy with Crew. I paced the floor like that same caged tiger from the other day. That whole "mama bear" thing sure is active these days.

And? All is well, Crew is good. He had a great night, very mellow, very comfortable, opening his eyes on occasion. I guess it's ok for her to be busy without a Crew Crisis. :)

Boring Medical Stuff
No word on the echocardiogram yet, so I hope to get a phone call today when the results are in. His incision has opened a little around his stoma, so they have removed the bag and are catching his belly-poo with gauze pads until Wound Control decides how to fix it. They are keeping an eye on a little white spot on his scrotum that they think is not a hernia, but blanching from his edema (swelling). His ventilator settings are good, spending a lot of time around 26%, and he's not swinging so wildly with his oxygenation. Yesterday his oxygenation was making me crazy while I was there, swinging between 63 and 100 (ideal between 83, I think, and 95), back and forth, which I have never seen before, chasing him with everchanging vent settings. They gave him his phenobarbital (which is also kind of relaxing, like a sedative) and that helped him mellow that out a little. While he was low on hematocrit, they decided in the morning not to give him a transfusion. By the afternoon his blood pressure was low enough to be troublesome, so they did end up giving him blood products and his pressure has been good ever since.