Well... On Friday evening, our formerly homeless veteran was extubated and is breathing on his own. Saturday noon, he ate for the first time since his surgery... not much... just a scrambled egg, Jello, and a glass of Gatorade.
He still has peripheral IV lines running into both arms, in which he receives pain meds, heparin, and saline. Surprising, they never inserted a central line on him. He's no longer receiving insulin and dextrose IV drips for acute post-op hyperkalemia (high hpotassium). He's breathing better and is on oxygen via nasal cannula. While sleeping, if he starts breathing shallowly, his oxygen saturation drops as low as 82%. It should be 94% or higher.
The plan for today was to move him from ICU to a step-down unit if last night was unremarkable. One little glitch... there are no available beds in the step-down unit. However, there are several vacant ICU beds, so if worse comes to worse, he'll just stay in ICU at the step-down bed rate.
One little tidbit to mention. While in the hospital, they discovered he was positive for Helicobacter pylori (h. pylori). It's a bacterial infection of the stomach that is the primary cause of stomach ulcers. Treatment is easy and permanent... I was treated for it around 1990. The patient takes a ten day regimen of an antibiotic, an acid reducer, and Pepto Bismol. That's it.
Sounds like the soonest he could come home would be on Wednesday and that's if everything goes swimmingly.
Commercial aircraft flown in: B712 B722 B732 B734 B737 B738 B741 B742 B744 B752 B753 B762 B772 A310 A318 A319 A320 A321 DC91 DC93 DC94 DC1030 DC1040 F100 MD82 MD83 A223 CR2 CR7 E175