The first week in ICU
The first few days that Joe was ventilated have become muddled and it's hard to separate what happened when.
I do know that first week we had hope.
Joe had survived being ventilated and his oxygen therapy was down to anything between 70% and 40%. The air we breathe consists of 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen and the remaining is 1% mixed gases. So anything above that puts pressure on the lungs. The longer someone is on a mechanical ventilator the more chance there is of problems, particularly when the person is on high pressures. So the aim that first week was to find out what was causing Joe's problems, to get his oxygen therapy down to as low as possible and get him off sedation and off the ventilator.
Joe was being treated by steroids and oxygen, antibiotics and he was being dialysed as well. We had been concerned about how his new kidney was coping with the stress his body was under but it seemed to be doing well. The doctors were dialysing him to 'dry him out'. Nurses regular did what they called a simulated cough and even though Joe was clearly still bleeding into his lungs one of the theories was still that he was too wet. Another theory they were working on was that Joe had suffered an adverse reaction to Campath, the one off drug given in theatre to start the anti-rejection therapy after transplant.
Joe's oxygen requirements and his condition went up and down quite a lot that first week. We would be really upbeat when his oxygen came down to around 40% and then down again when it went up to 100%. Our concern was that every time they tried to move Joe, even to wash him, he would desaturate rapidly.
We spent hour after hour at the hospital, willing him to get better and we shed so many tears that week. We had our whole family around us and all we all wanted was for this utter nightmare to end.
I do know that first week we had hope.
Joe had survived being ventilated and his oxygen therapy was down to anything between 70% and 40%. The air we breathe consists of 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen and the remaining is 1% mixed gases. So anything above that puts pressure on the lungs. The longer someone is on a mechanical ventilator the more chance there is of problems, particularly when the person is on high pressures. So the aim that first week was to find out what was causing Joe's problems, to get his oxygen therapy down to as low as possible and get him off sedation and off the ventilator.
Joe was being treated by steroids and oxygen, antibiotics and he was being dialysed as well. We had been concerned about how his new kidney was coping with the stress his body was under but it seemed to be doing well. The doctors were dialysing him to 'dry him out'. Nurses regular did what they called a simulated cough and even though Joe was clearly still bleeding into his lungs one of the theories was still that he was too wet. Another theory they were working on was that Joe had suffered an adverse reaction to Campath, the one off drug given in theatre to start the anti-rejection therapy after transplant.
Joe's oxygen requirements and his condition went up and down quite a lot that first week. We would be really upbeat when his oxygen came down to around 40% and then down again when it went up to 100%. Our concern was that every time they tried to move Joe, even to wash him, he would desaturate rapidly.
We spent hour after hour at the hospital, willing him to get better and we shed so many tears that week. We had our whole family around us and all we all wanted was for this utter nightmare to end.
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