Shots Across The Bow

Expanding My Vocabulary

The new word is ARDS, or adult respiratory distress syndrome.

It's not a good word, but it has crept into my mom's doctor's vocabulary over the last 24 hours. It means that her lungs are reacting to the surgery by filling up with fluids and stiffening up, making it almost impossible for her to breathe, which is why she went back on the ventilator yesterday. Her doctor isn't sure she's got it, but her symptoms are consistent with it. I looked it up yesterday, and it can get pretty nasty, in fact, as complications from cardiac surgery go, it's right up there among the worst.

She's going to be on the ventilator for a few days, so they've started feeding her through a tube.

On the plus side, it looks like Mom is responding to the treatments they are giving her, so she might not develop full blown ARDS. They've been able to reduce the O2 levels on her ventilator and she's still maintaining good blood O2 levels, which means her lungs are functioning ok. And more good news, they've continued to taper her off the blood pressure medication, which is really good. And her kidney function is up, meeting the goals they've set for her. And her cardiac function is up to 65-70% where before the surgery she was in the low 20s. The best news is that when they dial back the medications to let her wake up a little bit, she's very responsive, so her brain is still in good shape.

On the balance, the possibility of ARDS is the biggest cloud looming over her recovery, but everything else is trending positive. Her doctor told us yesterday that her recovery was going to be long and slow, and that the best we can hope for is continual small improvements along with the occasional set back, and that's exactly what we're seeing right now.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers. I'll keep updating here whenever we get more news.

Posted by Rich at April 26, 2007 10:52 AM | TrackBack