Hospital Life...Day 36

Today is Day 36.  If you missed yesterday's post, you can read it HERE.

Spending an anniversary in the hospital {yesterday} was memorable, but not in the way you'd want it to be.  I am looking forward to many {and better} anniversaries in the future.  Next up...Peyton's birthday.  She will turn 7 on the 15th.

We are thankful that we seem to be in a good place with Peyton's pain control.  It's taken a lot to get to this point, but I am {at least for the time being} comfortable with her level of pain.

This morning on rounds we found that, once again, some of Peyton's labs are not where they need to be.  One of the ones that is off again is her albumin.  You may recall that we had issues with that earlier on before Peyton started on TPN.  She required an albumin infusion at one point.  They are hesitant to do that just now.  I think they want to wait to see what the next 24-48 hours bring where that is concerned, but it is definitely something they are keeping an eye on.

With the new pulmonary edema discovered yesterday, they have increased her dose of Lasix.  This is essentially a diuretic which Peyton was prescribed months ago at a lower dose by her Cardiologist because of her heart issues {mitral regurgitation}.  It is supposed to help pull fluid off the heart and lungs - when there is increased fluid, it can cause everything to have to work harder and it can cause problems.  Since there is evidence of fluid on her lungs now, they've increased the Lasix dose to hopefully help that out.  The problem is that it can also cause her potassium to go out of whack.  You might also recall that we have had several instances during this admission where Peyton required IV boluses of potassium {which is not a good thing}.

As you might be thinking yourself, it seems like we have come around full circle with some of Peyton's issues.  It seems like we keep going around in circles treating issues, finding new ones, treating those, going back to a prior issue, finding a new one, etc.  Coming back to having the issues with some of her lab values is a disappointment.  Having the pulmonary edema is certainly a concern.  The respiratory issues {decreased respirations at times} as also concerning.  There is a lot going on and none of that has anything to do with the issues with her leg that we're still dealing with!

We are having another family conference with some of Peyton's team here tomorrow.  We had one early on in this stay.  There will be a few different faces, since the residents and the attending are not the ones who were on the case back then.  But they are people who have been working with Peyton for a while now.  It will be a good opportunity for them to lay everything out for us, perhaps provide some options, and mostly to address any questions and concerns we have.

That's about all the news for today.  It's quiet since Peyton's been so sleepy today, so I thought I'd get this written earlier than later.  I'll update again tomorrow.