Thursday (Day 21)

UPMC Montefiore TICU
Thursday, March 18, 2010


Thursday was a very difficult day for the medical staff at UPMC. The doctors were doing all they could think o' to figure out why I was not getting better, but were having no luck. I am truly a medical mystery. The most likely cause for my problems was infection. However, test after test kept showing that there was no serious infection. The only possible explanation was the pneumonia. So they kept me on oxygen and gave me some cool toys to help me strengthen my lungs. Ace was a good breathing therapy coach and made sure that I did my excercises at least 15 times every hour.

Good Morning!! I don't think I'm quite awake yet.

Nope...definitely not awake yet.

Ace getting my breathing exercises ready. I'm VERY excited about doing them.

Don't they look like loads o' fun?

This one made a fluttering sound when I blew into it. If Ace didn't hear it flutter, I wasn't blowing hard enough and I had to do it again. It was very difficult.

When I blew into this one, the little blue plunger would go up. Ace put it on the hardest setting and I was still able to do it easily. I am so good.

/\/\/\WONDERFUL SURPRISE/\/\/\

Once again Doug and Heidi came to visit me. This time they brought an amazing surprise. I watched as Doug brought in his laptop and set it up for me to watch. He turned it on and surprised me with our WEDDING VIDEO. Doug has been working on it very hard since the wedding and it was well worth the wait. The video was awesome and he did an AMAZING job.

Thanks Doug...You ROCK!!

/\/\/\ICU ROOM/\/\/\

Some lovely scenery from the Montefiore ICU.

Equipment tower...complete with suction containers, oxygen supplies, and a whole bunch o' switches and outlets.

Bed pan...this may get some use.

Vitals monitor.
Heart rate is a little high and oxygen is a little low. Everything else looks okay.

Nurse Natalie
She was amazing and super cool. She also remembered me from when I had my surgery right before the wedding. I guess I made an impression...hopefully a good one.

Mama has had a rough day to. I think she deserves a rest.

/\/\/\ONE MORE TEST/\/\/\

The doctors thought that I might be leaking stool and air into my abdomen and that is what was causing the problems. So on Thursday night they came in and said that they wanted to do a gastrovue enema. Basically, the procedure consisted o' the doctors forces a dye up into my nether regions and taking multiple x-rays to see where it was going. Needless to say, it was not the most pleasant experience o' my life. They performed the test and returned me to the ICU very sore and very grumpy. About an hour later the surgeon came in and said that the test was incomplete and they would have to it again. Apparently, the doctor doing the test did not let the dye go high enough in my intestines to determine if there was a leak. So they rolled me back down to radiology and did the whole thing again. I was NOT pleased. After the test, the surgeon returned with good news and bad news.

Good News: No Leak...so no surgery.

Bad News: No Leak...so we still don't know what's wrong.

Game Plan: Continue treating the pneumonia and wait.

Nurse Natalie taking me for the gastrovue enema.

Longest hallway ever...BYE!!

/\/\/\THE END/\/\/\