Notes from the Edge of my sanity
My husband is back in the hospital, this time with acute renal failure. I wasn't able to sufficiently wake him up on Tuesday night (he'd wake and then fall right back asleep), so I called 911 and off we went. His kidneys had shut down for some reason and he wasn't flushing all of his medications out of his body. They think it was caused by a myriad of things: new high blood pressure meds from when he was in the hospital the last time (and he really doesn't need), all of the antibiotics from the past 3 weeks, a bit of dehydration. It's like the stars of bad stuff aligned to give Dave the time of his life.
He ended up in the ICU, with a myriad of tubes going in and out of his body, but the scary part (you know, aside from hearing "renal failure") was when they told me they were going to intubate him and put him on a ventilator. It allowed them to have more control as to how much oxygen he was getting and how much CO2 he was clearing. They wouldn't let me be in the room for the tubing itself, as it can be pretty scary, as they had to give him Narcan to clear the opiods, then stick a tube down his throat and of course he projectile vomited onto his super cool nurse (if your nurse shows up after a procedure on a loved one in different scrubs, go ahead and ask) and I was grateful to not be there, as at that point, I'd had no sleep in over 30 hours, which makes me prone to crying more.) Once this was done, he definitely started to improve as the day went on.
He was extubated this morning, none to happy with his wife or the medical staff for "overreacting" but hey - he's ALIVE.
I'm not sure yet when he'll be home, or when he'll be moved out of ICU, but at least he's breathing all on his own.
He ended up in the ICU, with a myriad of tubes going in and out of his body, but the scary part (you know, aside from hearing "renal failure") was when they told me they were going to intubate him and put him on a ventilator. It allowed them to have more control as to how much oxygen he was getting and how much CO2 he was clearing. They wouldn't let me be in the room for the tubing itself, as it can be pretty scary, as they had to give him Narcan to clear the opiods, then stick a tube down his throat and of course he projectile vomited onto his super cool nurse (if your nurse shows up after a procedure on a loved one in different scrubs, go ahead and ask) and I was grateful to not be there, as at that point, I'd had no sleep in over 30 hours, which makes me prone to crying more.) Once this was done, he definitely started to improve as the day went on.
He was extubated this morning, none to happy with his wife or the medical staff for "overreacting" but hey - he's ALIVE.
I'm not sure yet when he'll be home, or when he'll be moved out of ICU, but at least he's breathing all on his own.