Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Day 1 of Recovery

December 13, 2013


Today Katherine looked a little less puffy, was in good spirits and wanted Mom to begin Harry Potter - Book 1 soon after we settled in.  So the day was spent alternating reading, trading spots with grandparents and Aunt Margaret, and allowing the nurse to tend to Katherine's medical needs. At this point Katherine had a port in her neck and one in each arm.  She was receiving saline, fluids, norepinephrine, magnesium, potassium, pain medications and probably a few other things.  We nicknamed the IV tree her "Christmas Tree" as it had so many branches. She also had a catheter and had 3 drainage tubes in her chest.  Forgot to mention that yesterday in ICU they had given her FFP (fresh frozen plasma) due to her blood disorder (Factor V deficiency) causing her to continue bleeding. We found out that the key to moving from ICU to a room was to get her blood pressure regulated without norepinephrine and to get her drains to slow down in their production.  Since this wasn't happening today Katherine spent another night in ICU.  We were kicked out at 8 pm, but Katherine was much more awake by the end of the day then she had been.  We even watched "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"!

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