Lea had a difficult day today, with some good news and some bad news at the end of the day. She continued to run a fever of over 101 degrees today, and made several major swings in her medical requirements during the night. The night nurse, Barbara, had a pretty difficult time. Barbara had continued giving Lea huge doses of insulin to get the high blood sugar down, because that is what Lea has needed for the last two or three days, when her blood sugar suddenly bottomed out during the night!
Her blood pressure shot up during that time, requiring a medication to get it back down, and for the last several weeks all Lea has needed was something to get her blood pressure up! So, there wasn’t any medication available in the room, and it took a while to get her regulated once it was obtained. It varied quite a bit during the night, up and down, and Barbara was still tweaking it when my sister-in-law, Dottie, and I arrived this morning. Lea woke up this morning when we talked to her, and stayed awake for over an hour! A new record!
During that time we washed her hair, combed it out, and let it air dry on a towel. All the while Lea was letting us know by her eyelid action that she was enjoying it thoroughly. She was pretty sedated and worn out this morning, and indeed, slept most of the day, but during that morning period she mouthed words a lot, and then would fade off, as though dozing for a moment. Then, she would wake again, and start telling another story!
She wasn’t as animated as yesterday, but it still was very nice to be able to interact with her. Her day nurse, Leoni, told Lea to stick out her tongue, and after several seconds of trying, she finally did. She didn’t follow any other commands, however, for Leoni, nor Dr. Mah, who came in at 8:00 to check on Lea. He was not at all happy with the events of the night, did a pretty thorough examination of her, and requested an abdominal cat scan as soon as possible.
She was too sick to do much with today, and was not a candidate for getting in the cardiac chair. She could not work on the ventilator at all again, and probably will not until she is past this infection. All new cultures were taken today and sent off to the lab to see what bugs grow. We won’t know the results, though, before the weekend.
She was taken down to the cat scan room in her own bed, staffed by two transporters, a respiratory therapist, and her nurse, Leoni, at about two o’clock. She returned just before three, and we were allowed back in her room at about three thirty, after she had been “settled” in. That’s nurse talk for being cleaned up as necessary, and all medications and ventilator hooked up.
The good news was that the cat scan didn’t show any problems at all. In fact, those little pockets of fluid I mentioned earlier seem to have reduced in size. The bad news is that the cat scan didn’t show the cause of her current fever, nor any significant localization of infection. I didn’t see Dr. Mah after Lea came back to the room, but don’t expect that he’ll be very happy with the cat scan results.
Meanwhile, the Ativan medication is continuing to be reduced. We are down to .32 ml/hr now, while the Dilaudid remains at 1.5 ml/hr. Dilaudid will remain at that level for the foreseeable future, because it is the pain medication. The Ativan is the sedative, and Lea is suffering the DTs from withdrawal. Her body shudders uncontrollably as though she feels a deep shiver. Sometimes it starts at her head and works its way all the way down to her feet, and other times we just see it in her hands and feet.
So, she is coming off the narcotic sedative, and is being sedated with Thorazine to dampen the effects of the DTs. It will take at least a week to get all the Ativan out of her system after she is weaned completely off of it, and we will see the DTs get worse before they get better. We may experience those for a couple of weeks as they continue the weaning process. If necessary, she will be strapped to the bed to protect her from injury. Prepare yourself. Steel your nerves.
Lea is putting on weight again, as she is retaining water in her body. This is a natural reaction of the body when it gets a general infection, and she is getting visibly puffier each day. Her kidneys are working fine, but her circulatory system is letting fluid out through the vessel walls into surrounding tissue, in order to diffuse the effects of the infection. As I look at her pretty face puffing up again, my heart just has to go out to her.
She has been amazingly resilient through this whole thing, and has strength and reserve strength that just keeps welling up to carry her further through this battle. I know that if we switched positions, she would be doing the same thing for me that I am doing for her, doting, tending, supporting and caring. And, yet, as I look at her face while she is so heavily sedated I wonder if there is anything else I can do for her. The delusion she feels when she awakes is heartbreaking. The periods of panic are worse! What to do? What to say? How do you calm?
The Lord is teaching me some pretty tough lessons right now, and I know that I am up to learning them, or He would let Lea get well right now so we could go home. I just hope I’m not too thick headed, and learn quickly, for Lea’s sake. Thank you for your continuing prayers and good wishes on our behalf. Please know that every single note and email is appreciated. When we get past this experience we will make it a point to respond to everyone individually. Please forgive us that we don’t respond until that time.
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March 28, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Pray-ers
DAY SIXTY-NINE
FROM: Barb S
Sept 22 @ 6:54 AM
Just wanted to let you know we are always thinking about you and Lea. Just so sorry we can’t all be there more. I know how important family support is. I know when Lea is better she will be so proud of the way you have handled all of this. It is to bad that more couples these days don’t take the love and marriage commitment with such passion. That is why there is so much divorce
FROM: Becky
Sept 22 @ 9:12 AM
Hello Larry, Could you add my home address to you update email listing for lea? I am on there with my work email address now, but I do not always get the emails. I figure between the two addresses I should be able to get the email. Take care & God bless you & the family.
FROM: Jacqui
Sept 22 @ 10:38 AM
Dear Larry, I wanted to share something with you about some struggles I had to go through at the young age of 17 and without the knowledge of God’s Word that you have sown in you heart and life.
It was September during my senior year of high school when my mother got a very bad headache. She was not one to complain. She worked hard, a mother of 11, who had started working at a local bank just six years earlier when the youngest started 1st grade. She eventually went to the doctor only to find out the worse news, she had brain cancer. In the longest three months of my young life, my mother fell asleep and is now awaiting the return of our Lord and Savior.
This was a very traumatic time of my life. I had not yet been saved and I was mad, mad at my Dad for not being able to help her live, mad at her for leaving me with a man who worked so much I didn’t know him and mad at God for taking her from me so early in life (she was 48, I was 17). My whole world changed in an instant of time.
My mother had always been the one to hold the family together, she was the love that bound. She was truly a virtuous woman. She cooked all of our meals, made our clothes and believed God to make the money go as far as it could. My father worked hard to support all of us. I’m sure it was a challenge to raise 11 kids on one income and we never felt like we were lacking anything.
Within in 3 years of my mother’s death, I married. I was young and didn’t know what to look for in a man and I made a very poor choice. Within a year and a half, I was divorced. I still had not found God and now had something else to be mad about.
Eventually, I joined the Coast Guard and was witnessed to by a co-worker and have been standing faithfully since that day over 13 years ago. I learned that God was not responsible for the negative things that happened in my life because “He is light and in Him is no darkness at all”. I am thankful that I learned how to believe God and to manifest the power His holy spirit. This has enabled me to get my needs met and believe for my son to stay healthy his whole life. I have ministered healing to people and seen them walk when they were told there would be no chance of them ever walking again. I have the privilege to have a husband who believes God’s Word and wants to do help people with it. It has been an honor and a blessing to have learned the things I have learned and seen how God delivers time after time as we but believe the greatness of His Word.
I could still be mad to think I needed this knowledge when my mother was so sick and died, or again, when I chose my first husband but then I realize that I would be charging God with evil and we are to never do that. I
learned instead to see how He had protected me through so many things until I was ready to believe His Word and to learn to wait on His timing. It has brought much peace to my heart and life.
I have been inspired to read your daily updates and know that all of joined in praying for Lea has had a tremendous effect on her and everyone who receives your updates. It has been touching to see your love and respect for her and God. I think of David and the Psalms where he pours his heart out to God, time after time, showing his anger, his hurt, his disappointments, his fears, but always brought his mind back to the Word
and gave glory to God.
My prayer for you is strength to continue to be there for Lea and see the things you are seeing. I pray for His wisdom for you throughout this situation. My prayer for Lea is a full, complete and speedy recovery for
truly God has called both of you to something very special. Thank you for having the courage to share all that you are going through with so many you don’t even know. Thank you for having the courage to speak
His Word, to witness to the great results of doing His Word and not back down from the spiritual competition.
Bless your heart.
FROM: Barb S
Sept 22 @ 10:13 PM
Hi! I hear you got a letter from a certain sister in law. Just so you know, she doesn’t speak for all of us. She does manage to upset some of us. We here in Missouri happen to think you are doing a wonderful job of keeping us all informed. We all feel like we have gotten to know the Larry Lea knows and loves so much. So, when she uses the word we, she is talking about herself. Anyway, this isn’t to complain or anything but we all felt you should know we think you are doing great and we know how much you love Lea and would do anything necessary to help her. We understand you can’t give every single detail of each days happenings or you would be on the computer all the time and no time for Lea. But, thank you for the time you spend keeping us updated. We love you both.
REPLY FROM: Larry Vaughn
Sept 23 @ 6:23 AM
Thank you. I appreciate your love and support. I know what you mean. Love ya!