Planning for the Next Act

Mom was a little uncomfortable today, despite the nurse giving her shots for the pain. The chest tube is very tender, plus the muscles in her ribs are sore from doing all the deep breathing. So first, the bad news. Her lungs are not responding exactly as they had hoped. Despite them draining off over a liter of fluid from her left side yesterday, her lung is not reinflating as they wanted to see. Also, there is air in the pleural space. On the right side the air in the pleural space has diminished, but she is still having a large amount of fluid draining out of the chest tube. The fluid has been blood-tinged fluid up until today; it started to run clear (that's good!) The good news, they feel as though she may successfully wean off the vent, so tomorrow they will turn off the vent through the day. If she does well, they will remove the tube late in the day.

The doctor said she would probably still be in the hospital Friday. This has caused us both considerable distress. We both want her home when I have my surgery, for many reasons that I won't bore you with. But I told her today, we are probably both going to have to let it go. It will be hard for me to relinquish control (ie. be put under during surgery) when I know that she is so dependent right now. And she hates to still be in the hospital having to focus on her own care while I'm having my surgery. It will seriously limit our communication. And the worst part is that we won't be able to see each other for a week. That will be the most excruciating part. The anticipation is exhausting.