Ups and Downs

Gabi had a pretty good day today. She rested well having the machine help her breathe. We found out that there was evidence of a fungus in one the cultures of her lungs. (It is not likely that this was introduced into her lungs during surgery, but probably something that was lying dormant in her body and "came alive" during this period of stress because of the opportunity.) She now has to add an antibiotic onto all the other meds and fight off this infection. She still has some bleeding in her left lung and they are using suction to get this out as regularly as she will tolerate it.

Later they decreased some of her sedation medication because her blood pressure was too low. About that time it was noticed that Gabi's heart rate wasn't changing. It was staying exactly the same no matter if she was sleeping or upset. They started her on a heart pacer that would initiate a beat for her heart at a certain rate that was faster, hoping that would bring her blood pressure down. It would also give her heart a rest (it was thought that her heart might have some swelling, stress, etc from the reconstruction). The heart pacer didn't work and therefore they started her on another med to increase her heart rate and raise her blood pressure. This worked, but since then her temp is going back up and her breathing is getting irregular. It is such a delicate balance to keep all her systems up and running within safe parameters! Every time we think she is staying stable and starting to move forward, then something else starts reacting wrongly. That's all we know right now. Hopefully she will rest well tonight. Thanks for all your prayer and support today.