Goodness, what a day!

Of course, with any OPS procedure you have to get up at the crack of dawn to be at the hospital by 7am and then...you wait. Wait, oh...until about 9:45 for the actual procedure to begin. Then again, there are plenty of sick folk's in the world. Truly ill, not just some nitwit with the sniffles looking for a day of from work so he can go drink beer and fish. (Save for the 'sniffles', a cold beer and fishing doesn't sound so bad to me.)

Anyway, in the word's of Gleason, "And away we go!"

The procedure performed today was a reasonably simple one that involved inserting a PleurX (r) catheter into Pop's right pleural cavity in order to extract any fluid that had built up in the past few weeks. And boy howdy, it certainly made its presence known as the pulmonologist drew off over two liters of fluid. That's a little more than half a gallon of fluid....a half gallon. Good Lord Almighty! It's no wonder he was having difficulty breathing.

Upon his return from the procedure the X-ray indicated pneumothorax in the right side pleural cavity. In other words, there was air in the cavity and it needed to be extracted as well. Shortly after that discovery, the surgical assistant came into the room with another PleurX setup and withdrew 250 more mL of fluid and, at the end of the process, the evidence of the pneumothorax made its presence know by emitting an audible air and foam effusion.

Somewhere around 3:00, after another X-ray, Pop was released and we made our way home, stopping for a burger and shake. He ate about two thirds of his burger and complained of feeling tired and weak. I put him to bed and me, well, I stretched out on the floor to watch a little TV. I promptly fell asleep, only to wake up after hearing him cough at about 5:15pm.

He got in his wheelchair and I rolled him to the table, whereupon he finished a half-tepid chocolate shake. He said he still felt pretty lousy, but would be OK while I went to the genetic bouillabaisse that is Walmart to pick up a prescription.

By the time I got back home, he was back in bed. This raised my level of concern, not to the panic stage, but to the 'check his vitals' stage. And so I did, taking three BP readings from each arm, I determined thaat he was in hypotension (low blood pressure) and that did raise my concern. To explain, after this type of procedure, hypotension is a potential side effect. That said, pulmonary edema induced hypotension is potentially lethal because, after reexpanding the lung and having drawn so much fluid off the lung, edema (more fluid) can effuse inside the lung, thereby causing circulatory failure. Keep in mind, Pop has experienced three MI's, two strokes and suffers from atrial fibrillation. So, my next move? Call the physician..

After my explanation that I had measured his BP in each arm three times, listened to his chest and back (yes, I own a good stethoscope), we reached the conclusion that this is most likely post-procedural side effects. After all, Pop is not experiencing any breathing problems (a little crusty, perhaps) but, overall he's not in any pain, nor is he in AFIB (a little tachy, perhaps) but not in AFIB, as the symptoms of that are quite obvious.

Pop's asleep now. I'll have an ear open all night, because with hypotension, there is the risk of 'postural hypotension'. In other words, if he needs to get up, he needs to do it slowly, otherwise he could get lightheaded which could cause a slip off the bed or, should he try to stand up, he could fall, which at 80 years of age, could cause further damage. I pray for a quiet night.

Tomorrow, Tom (my brother, of course Bud is too) will take Pop to the Cancer center at BMH. I think they are only going to do a CT, but they could go ahead with the radiation therapy. I don't know. As for me, I'm going to the park to decompress. But since I'm on LOA, I'm going to cold call and try and sell some web design. It's been a few years, but I've still got my chops.

But FIRST, I get to drain the pleural effusion. That should be interesting, but I think I've got a good handle on it. That's in the morning...

Right now, I think I'll go abuse any non-Bama, non-Saints fans over at Facebook. Tonight, I need a little humor.