Holding Steady

Things went well last night, and by morning Jordan's blood gases were considered "normal" again. They removed the BiPAP mask (that was running at 40% o2), and put her nose canula back in (at 1 liter of O2), and will continue to monitor her blood gases to make sure her levels remain constant. She also had an x-ray at 5:00am, and that was clear for pneumonia, so things are looking up. She'll be here today and tonight, but might get moved back out to the regular floor later in the day (yeah for a cot to sleep on for me). They're even talking about possibly sending her home tomorrow, but she has to pass one more test before that happens -- she has to wake up for more than a minute or two at a time every few hours.

Lookin' better today (I really need to get a new cell phone like Devon's -- it has a much better camera & it syncs to Outlook calendars, too . . . . )

No one is sure why she's so sleepy -- it's not from pain meds as she is only getting those every 12 hours or so (because she's asleep she's not indicating pain, so they're not medicating her). And when she does wake up it only lasts for a few minutes. Now, from a pain standpoint, I think this is great, because it doesn't hurt if you're sleeping. But the question of why she's sleeping so much is a bit worrisome. Is it because she hasn't cleared the anesthesia from Friday from her system (which would be expected for a non-neurologically impaired person)? Or is it a left over from the acidosis yesterday & her brain is taking longer to clear the sleepiness of the high CO2 levels? Or is it just because it hurts in her throat to be awake and therefore she's "choosing" to sleep through the discomfort? We're not really sure, but whatever it is, we're going to hang out here and see if she snaps out of it within the next couple of days.