Angie & Jim

Long Hard Road Aheadby Jim

Dr. Lui and Tara Drake (Dr. Lui’s assistant) came in after we got into our room here at Stanford to give us some information.  Right now Angie’s heart is in fibrillation, which they can’t fix yet because of the fluid in her lung.  Angie has taken a couple doses of diuretic today and has another tomorrow morning before her chest x-ray.  If Dr. Lui feels it is helping enough, then that means Angie won’t need another chest tube.  It would be great if they don’t have to drain her like they did last time.  It is very important that they get this fluid off, but it is much better to get it out naturally (or at least medicinally).  We’ll know mid-day tomorrow.

As far as the arrhythmia, this is where things get complicated.  Because it has been going on for so long (over 48 hours now), she’s at risk for a blood clot.  That means they don’t want to get her out of arrhythmia until she’s been on a blood thinner and something to suppress the arrhythmias themselves.  The drug they want to put her on is a drug that is very effective, but it also tends to have negative side-effects that they are concerned about.  Dr. Lui said that these side effects generally are only problems when the drug is taken for a long time, as in years.  He wants to only have her take it for a few months while they sort out her rhythm problems.

It sounded like Dr. Lui wants to get the fluid problem fixed this week, send her home for a few weeks on the new medication and then have her back in 3 or 4 weeks to cardiovert her (shock her to stop the arrhythmia).  Angie has had a cardioversion before, and they aren’t fun.  I’m pretty sure they need her to have a functioning respiratory system before they want to do that.

So, that is the current state of affairs.  It looks like we’ve got a few weeks of challenges ahead of us.  Please keep praying for us.

Thanks.