Re-Balancing

    When we look back on our different hospital stays we usually refer to them by the condition that landed us there.   Since we already have a "kidney failure" stay this one is likely to be remembered by our visitors.   Nope not people but box elder bugs.   Not the occasionally one or two, but countless ones hanging out in the bathroom and squished on the floor.   Trying to sleep in a hospital with all the beeping and interruptions is always a challenge, but having the heebie-jeebies of bugs climbing all over you is one we hope not to repeat again.     

     Anyways, yesterday he started the day with an ultrasound of his kidney's and a visit from the BMT (Blood and Marrow Transplant) team who is in charge while he is here.  Since he is here for kidney failure we knew we would also be seeing the kidney team and were surprised that they didn't show up until late in the afternoon. 

      Because his kidneys are struggling his electrolyte levels are out of balance (potassium, calcium, sodium, etc.).    On the basic blood test pretty much everything is flagged.   The main one they are concerned about is his potassium.   The high levels can cause problems with his heart so before we even got to our room they did an EKG.   There was a "small" afib so they have him on a heart monitor (they call it telemetry).  He's also on a continuous pulse and oxygen monitor.   It went off constantly all night and day yesterday making it a pretty sleepless night.    After swapping out monitors and sensors multiple times they finally figured out that a forehead monitor would give better results so he's rocking a nice headband to keep it in place. 

       They have done a lot of different things to try and bring his potassium levels back into balance including, strangely, a high dose breathing treatment of albuterol.   His levels yesterday were up and down, but today as far as we heard, they are trending down. 

      One strange thing compared to last October is that instead of crazy high blood pressure, his blood pressure is really low.   The BP monitors have a hard time recognizing it, so they are checking it manually.   The systolic number has been in the 80's or 90's, but today it was in the low 100's.  A sign that things are headed in the right direction.   Kidneys are very particular and don't like either high or low blood pressure.  Having normal makes them happier, and we much prefer happy kidney's. 

      The updates from the two different teams today is that they are about 90% certain that his kidney's are struggling because they are dried out (I think from the medications to try and pull off extra fluid).   They are giving his kidney's some TLC and have him on continuous fluids to re-hydrate while also trying to not make the fluid issues worse.   His legs and feet are very swollen and painful so it's a tough balance which is going to keep us here for at least several more days.   Healing is just going to take time and we just have to be patient.   There probably won't be much to update, so in this case no news is good news. 

       Today for the first time in any of our stays we had a visit from a chaplain.   It felt a bit like being on a show called "The Story Trek" as we shared with him some of our story.   What a crazy story it has been!   Being able to share with him some of the miracles we've experienced, and the love that's been shared was a great way to pass the morning.   Joy and peace are there if you make sure to look for them.   Perhaps instead of remembering this visit at the box elder bug stay, we can try and remember our visit with a chaplain.