The CT that was done the other night shows that the contusions in Kirk's brain are resolving and the swelling is decreasing. That is good news.
We are holding steady on ICP with a low dose of pentobarbital 0.5 mg/Kg/hr. The goal now is to see what his ICP is when he is warmed up. So his temperature will be taken slowly back to normal. 0.1C over 2 hours. However the nurses are calling him an over achiever on his temperature. He meets his temperature goals and then exceeds them. This means it is hard to control and not ideal swinging high to low and back.
We are stopping the constantly open cranial fluid drain and just monitoring his ICP constantly. We can always open the drain if needed. His pupils are equal and reactive but sluggish. He will also get an ultrasound of his neck veins today so we can see the clot and verify normal flow in all the other veins. Finally we are increasing his heparin, or blood thinner to try to start attacking that clot. We are doing so gradually to make sure we don't have an unwanted effect.
He had a nice bath this morning and lost the remaining wiskers he was holding on to. So he is nice and clean shaven now. We redid some towel wraps and I got to use my good engineering self. Each of the three pieces of tape on each of the three towel rols has five squares of tape. The tape is awesome, it is perforated every two inches, so you don't need scissors. And you can be exact.
We had a quiet night last night. He had only routine monitoring and no drug changes. We didn't drop the pentobarbital until this morning. Future activities will include eventually doing a tracheostomy and inserting a PEG, which is a line into his stomach, unless we can get him breathing on his own by mid week. Honestly I would sing and dance if we got there.
I have placed a guest book in his room. It will usually be on the table or bench. It is a small blue book and if you come to visit I would love for you to sign it and maybe leave a short note.
Dearest Kimber & Sidney
ReplyDeleteI wish I could come by to sign the guest book but live too far away. I want you to know we are still here in Houston praying for you and thinking about you. I am frequently asked how you and Kirk are doing. Your blog is a blessing to those of us who care. You have had some tough decisions to make and, as a nurse, I can tell you this: you are AWESOME! You have grasped all the important health concepts but have not lost sight of loving that wonderful man of yours. I admire you so much.
I leave you with a quote from another strong woman:
“As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along . . . The encouraging thing is that every time you meet a situation, though you may think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it you find that forever after you are freer than you ever were before. . . . You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.”― Eleanor Roosevelt