Keep Running! -Kim

Kim hasn't really been changing much these past few days. But she has, bit by tiny bit, been improving. Baby steps. :) They are very gradually lowering the settings on her respirator, so that her lungs are doing more work, little by little. It's gotten to a pretty tricky stage, because the work they are doing is finally starting to break up some of the mucus in her lungs. But, the breathing tube makes it difficult to get rid of. There is a suction line that can be lowered down the breathing tube, and a bit past it, to pull up fluid that is coming out of her lungs. But, it has to be done manually, so we have to keep a close eye on her. When she starts coughing, she'll need it done, and some other times she just tries to show it with her eyes. It's a little scary for her, because if too much fluid builds up, it blocks the line and she can't breathe.
As I've mentioned before, she has a suction line running through her nose, down her throat and into her stomach to pump out any fluids that make their way there. Her feeding tube goes down the other side of her nose, down her throat, through her stomach and into her small intestine. So her stomach isn't really supposed to be doing much at all right now. They try to keep it drained so that she won't throw up, but sometimes when she's coughing really hard, she works up a little vomit anyway. This is always the worst, because she ends up with fluid from her lungs in her windpipe/trachea blocking the base of her breathing tube, and vomit in her throat/esophagus filling up her mouth, so I know she feels like she is drowning, and she panics a bit. The nurses have always been really good to get her suctioned out as quickly as possible, and Kim knows this. But it's still not fun while it's happening. One time she was coughing and gagging so hard, that she actually worked the suction line up from out of her stomach, and into her mouth. Her vomit is yellow, from the potassium-rich nutrition fluid they still have on a constant drip into her. So, try to imagine poor Kim starting to spasm, turning bright red, with wide panicked eyes, yellow fluid frothing out of her mouth, and then a long plastic tube working its way out as well. No, actually, don't try to imagine it. The nurse really did handle it all very quickly, and we were there with a nice rag to keep her from getting all messy. I am most grateful that her heart has been getting so much healthier. One of the chemo’s that they gave her last time really made it weak, and prone to those SVP/beat-twice-as-fast attacks. But, now that it is getting stronger, she hasn't been getting them, and that has really been wonderful. Also, I'm glad that she's still been kept on the sedatives, and so she probably won't remember that lovely experience. Though I guess we'll have to see what she remembers when she's well enough to come completely off the respirator.
Another fun thing I forgot to tell you last post was that poor Kim has started to develop bed sores. They've tried to keep her rotated, slightly propped up on one side or another for a change, and to keep her blood circulating... but alas, it was to no avail. So, today they brought in a special bed that they ordered up for her. It's like a regular hospital bed, but with an air mattress on top. And not just any air mattress- this one is made up of smaller air chambers that will inflate and deflate slightly to keep the pressure on her body changing now and then. It was pretty exciting getting her moved onto it (it involved a Lot of people, a special inflatable moving pad, and some serious furniture rearranging) but she agrees that it is more comfortable than her other bed was.
They lowered Kim's sedative level a bit today, so she was a little more conscious and active than she has been for the past week. I know it frustrates her a little, when she can work up the energy to be frustrated, to not be able to talk, but it is nice to look at her, and be able to interact with her a bit- once I get the hang of asking short and simple, yes or no questions. Most exciting though was that for just a little while today, she was strong enough to grip a marker and write a little bit on a board for us. She said that it was hard to breathe. The respiratory doctor came in just to talk to her about it, and after carefully checking her ventilator, she explained to Kim that it would feel a little harder because they had lowered some of the settings and Kim was going to be doing a little more of the work now, but if it got too hard, they could go back up on the settings. Faced with this clearly defined goal, Kim nodded to show that she would work on building her lungs up. Oh, I am so proud of her. The other thing Kim wrote was that she wanted a warm blanket. Which... brings me to my other news. Her fever went away completely for the first time today. As of late this afternoon, she was at a normal, human temperature, and stayed there until we left around 1030 pm. She has literally had a fever non-stop for the past three and a half weeks. It will probably go back up again, but that she was able to get this low, at least for a while, is great.
As you can see, it's still a really rough road for Kim, but I can't help but feel that she is on the right track. Thank you all, so much... this really is a miracle.