Duke 2012 – Day 2

Day 2, Thursday, January 5, 2012. First, I need to make a correction and an addition to yesterday’s blog. The small correction is that Tami only had one syringe of furosemide last night in her IV. It was 80 mg, but it was all at once, not in 2 doses. Just for the sake of accuracy… I also forgot to mention that we had visitors last night. Just as we were getting settled, Cleve, Vaughn, and Jackson Calcutt came from Wake Forest just to see us for about an hour. Their visit was greatly appreciated, and they are always such a blessing and encouragement to be around.

So, it seems like we are done for today. Yep, just past 12 noon and they have done everything they are going to. Tami had another dose of IV Lasix this morning and had an echocardiogram. (I was told that I need to clarify my abbreviations and technical word usage. So, “ekg” or “ecg” from yesterday’s blog is an electrocardiogram, a strip chart recording of the electrical activity of your heart. Attach 12 leads to various body locations, let it record a few seconds, done. The echocardiogram is an ultrasonic test that measures the size and function of the heart – think of the “sonogram” pictures of unborn babies, but in color and more like a movie than a still shot. End of non-medical-Dr. Clabo’s lesson today in cardiological medical terminology.) We finally met the doctor later this morning. They are most concerned that the diuretics that Tami takes every day – even the new one she tried this past weekend – aren’t working as well as they should be. So whether it is just the fluid retention (the result of congestive heart failure, which is one of Tami’s conditions) or whether Tami’s heart is pumping significantly less well is hard to say. So that is what they will determine from the heart catheterization tomorrow. (ok, one more time… they insert a tube into a vein in your groin and run it up into the heart and measure the pressures inside the heart chambers – if the pressures are high, it’s because the heart isn’t pumping as well as it should be) The results of that procedure will tell the doctors a lot about whether Tami’s heart is the same or whether it is weaker than it has been before.
So here is what you can pray for. First, that Tami’s heart is still as strong as it has been and the heart cath shows that. Second, that we don’t go stir crazy just sitting here until tomorrow morning and then again all weekend while she starts back on warfarin and her INR comes back up (Ok, that can be tomorrow’s lesson ).
Oh, and by the way, just because I am posting the majority of the news here on the blog doesn’t mean that you can’t call or text or email or Facetime to communicate with us directly. We don’t mind chatting when there is nothing going on (most of the time), and we are encouraged knowing that you are thinking about us!

Duke 2012 – Day 1

It has been a busy first day (1/4/12) for us at Duke. We got here about 4:00 to be admitted. We met the cardiology resident, a transplant cardiology fellow, and the day-shift nurses. They did an x-ray and an ekg (yes, I know it should be ecg…). They finally got an IV started after the first tech tried and missed 3 times, so Tami will have some good bruises to show for that. They also drew 7 vials of blood to check for pretty much everything. They gave Tami 2 syringes of Lasix (furosemide) in the IV (total of 80 mg if you are following the medical details). Of course, they are measuring her fluid output, so Tami asked how much they expected to get. Of course, it’s different with each person, etc., so she asked how much they had collected so far. The nurse checked and said they had collected 1000 cc (about a quart) so far and that he was amazed that they had gotten so much already and that he wouldn’t have expected nearly that much from just looking at Tami. So I’d say that’s some good news so far. They are planning to do an echocardiogram tomorrow just so they have a recent one here to compare with the one that was done in Florence a couple of weeks ago. They have scheduled Tami for a heart catheterization tomorrow (1/5/12), but that will depend on her anti-coagulation level tomorrow – today her INR was 2.4, but they want it down to at most 1.5 before they will do a procedure. Most likely (we think) that will be Friday, instead. So, we will try to get some sleep, meet the transplant cardiologist who is handling Tami’s case tomorrow morning some time, and see where we go from there. So, not an exciting first day, but it seems like good first progress with eliminating the excess fluid. Thanks for your prayers. I’ll be sure to blog more tomorrow.