Another Chest Tube

The last post was everything I was documenting before I started this blog. Pretty long! I can now compose updates at the hospital because the hospital computers allow blogs but not facebook. Today Scott is still exhausted. Last week the surgeons put in 5 chest tubes to drain fluid that seems to accumulate around his heart and lungs making it more difficult for them to work. Today they are putting in number 6. There is a pocket of fluid that isn't draining from the other tubes and is putting pressure on his left lung making it difficult to breathe. Last night, instead of going all night without needing the ventillator he was on it for about 9 hours. At the moment the new chest tube is going in. It should drain the fluid and make his breathing much easier. I hope it works well! Some good news is that today is the first day that Scott is completely off all meds to raise his blood pressure. Yipee!!!! He might need it back a bit when he goes on the dialysis but maybe not. When Scott first had the transplant he was on epinephrine, norepinephrine, vasopressin and milrinone. And high amounts of them too! Over the last month they've weaned these off gradually. Sometimes they had to raise them or add them back too. Maybe this part is over?!