Doug was coherent today, holding conversations and continuing to crack jokes. We started working toward going home on hospice.
Later in the afternoon he had a breathing scare. The doctor was in the room and he complained about feeling short of breath. She hooked him back up to the O2 monitoring machine and saw that his oxygenation levels were quickly dropping. It dropped to the mid 30s (90 is a preferred minimum) before the rapid response team was able to stabilize him on a BiPap machine.
The BiPap pumps air in and out of your lungs and delivers almost twice as much Oxygen than he was receiving through the nose plug. It is also the last resort before going onto a ventilator.
The BiPap mask is somewhat invasive, so he couldn't talk and was getting frustrated. We were finally able to have him communicate by writing in a journal. He said that the lack of Oxygen caused him panic and got his attention. Doctors call this "air hunger." He said he was not afraid of death, but was worried about that transition; he didn't want to experience that again. The doctors agreed and decided to give him increased pain medication and an anti-anxiety med to make him more comfortable.
Because if the episode and need for the BiPap, Doug decided that it would be less of a hassle to stay where he was in the hospital rather than going home.
The medication they gave him put him to sleep for a while. When he woke up, he took the BiPap mask off and after Respiratory came they were able to switch over to a less invasive Oxygen mask that allowed him to talk. This mask doesn't force air into his lungs and doesn't provide as much O2 as the BiPap, but he seems to be doing fine. They gave him more medication and he fell back asleep.
There were a number of people around after the nurse gave him the meds. She ensured us that he could still hear our conversation and encouraged us to talk to him and share stories. For about an hour, we had a beautiful time as we told our favorite Doug stories: conquering Pompeii with Sherry in a wheelchair, taking her to the top of every castle, Smokey the Cat, movie lines on napkins in Katie's middle school lunches, Drew and the Honey Pot, Ronald capturing Doug on film in mid-throw-up, being a Monopoly cheater, and much more.
Psalm 18:29 -"With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall."
No comments:
Post a Comment