sunday 7/21/2013 tet spell..again..geeez

Today was a replay of events on Tuesday. Ava was struggling to keep her oxygen saturations up even on 100% oxygen with the conventional ventilator. She was switched back to the oscillator which didn't help much. All the events were the same. She had another tet spell, meaning her heart lacked the pressures to get the blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen.  She was given all the same meds as Tuesday, only much faster because the doctor made sure we had them at the bedside as soon as her oxygen started dropping. She had another cardiac echo, which showed no changes. She had an x-ray of the lungs and another of the abdomen because of such abdominal distention. The chest x-ray was very hazy, so we got another of her laying on her side  because the doctor thought it might be fluid around the lungs. After the lateral chest x-ray it was determined that the haziness was either infection or collapsed alveoli (little sacs in the lungs that provide oxygen exchange with the blood). This was the better of the scenarios because she avoided a painful chest tube required to drain fluid from the lungs.  The central  IV line in the leg that was pulled the other day had a positive blood culture for bacteria, and it is thought that Ava may have additional infection that might not be covered by the current antibiotics, so gentamycin was added back in-it was previously removed because it was thought it was not needed. As of 10pm, she was holding her oxygen saturations up well, while given 70% oxygen on the oscillator- which is quite a bit. They were already having to wean the vasopressin again, because her blood pressure was too dang high. A floor nurse (the best IV nurse in the unit) was able to get an arterial line in, which was amazing since we had just pulled the one placed by the anesthesiologist doc. The one thing we don't have is a line big enough to give blood through, if that becomes necessary. Gosh I hope not. She is heavily sedated with morphine and versed otherwise she kind of fights the oscillator. Shaun and I felt helpless..again. The nurse at the bed next to Ava's prayed for us which was awesome, cause we were kind of falling apart. Ava has her own two nurses tonight, hopefully tomorrow too. Shaun has been here for 12 days. We're hoping she is doing well enough for him to go to work on Tuesday. Bob got back from Africa today and was a tired trooper as he watched the 3 kiddos for us. Blah, and another day passes.