A Bit of a Downturn

Amacker had a rough night. In the middle of the night her red blood count dipped and they gave her a transfusion to bring the count back up. Also, her blood gasses showed she wasn’t getting enough oxygen, so they changed her breathing apparatus settings to increase the pressure inside her lungs a bit, hold the breaths longer, and give her more time to absorb the oxygen. I’m told this is common in situations involving the trauma that happens to the lungs in high-speed accidents.

Amacker is stable again now, but they are monitoring things very closely.

On another note, they have reduced the amount of sedation medication they are giving her. As a result, when they do things like place x-ray film under chest, or roll her to change her, or other things, it appears that she wakes up for a second or two. Her eyes open, she appears to grimace, and she sometimes jerks her hand upward. They assure me that she is still asleep, but she probably does feel some pain during those times. Her pain medication remains unchanged.