Ella had a successful trip down to radiology. The CT scan went well; they were able to transport her and do the scan without requiring any sedation.
Tonight when we came to see Ella, they had made one other change during the day. At noon, she had a blood gas of cO2=79, pO2=88, with her pH level down. Her carbon dioxide was definitely too high, so Dr. Kays bumped up the ventilator to 50 assisted breaths per minute.
Then, her next blood gas was at 4pm. It improved quite a bit, cO2=65, pO2=92, with a better pH level. While we are sitting here at her bedside, she had another blood gas at 11:30pm, cO2=64, pO2=116, with a good pH level. Much, much better.
Dr. Kays decided to hold off on replacing the left chest tube yesterday and today, until he got the results of the CT scan. Fortunately, the CT scan gave him the information that he needed.
Her right lung looked good and there was just a slight amount of fluid retention in the chest cavity. However, the left side of her chest has a tremendous amount of fluid, confirming Ella’s difficulty in progressing forward.
Dr. Kays is still trying to decide the best way to treat Ella’s condition. We know that it involves Ella having surgery this Wednesday, but we do not know how extensive. Some of it may have to be decided once he gets the camera in her chest to see.
Fortunately, Ella has been doing better. If you remember 2 weeks ago when Dr. Kays removed the left chest tube, she took several steps back in her progression. Now, it is almost as if her left tube is out since it hasn’t drained anything for days, and yet her blood gases and saturations look better. And as we have experienced, she seems comfortable and in a pleasant mood when we visit her. So her toleration of the fluid in her chest cavity has improved significantly.
We are looking forward to speaking to Dr. Kays tomorrow to hear about his plan for Wednesday.
Please keep praying for Ella and her surgery this week- – that it will go well, be on the less invasive side, and ultimately resolve the fluid issue.
We trust that the Lord will provide wisdom to Dr. Kays. We are taking comfort that Ella is in the hands of the Almighty God.