Bronchoscopy #2

 Brian is stable and daily responds to commands that demonstrate his neurological/cognitive abilities. He had an EKG on Sunday as his heart rate was slow and the doctors wanted to make sure that his heartbeat was not irregular. Today, his doctor let me know that the EKG looked good. They would like to lower his sedation a little more and see if they can get him to be a bit more upright. The goal is to get him into a different bed that will help with his recovery/ ability to begin minimal physical therapy. He needs to keep his body moving so that his muscles don't get too weak. 

A few days ago, I mentioned that a doctor had performed a procedure where a camera was placed in Brian's lungs to look for blockages that were perhaps blocking some of his oxygen intake abilities. Once the blockages were discovered, the camera had an attachment that could remove some of the blockages.  The procedure is called a Bronchoscopy. This seemed to help for a few days, however, his doctor let me know that Brian's oxygen levels are concerningly low and she wanted Brian to have another Bronchoscopy to see if she could clear up any blockages and help his oxygen intake improve. I asked about his tidal volume and she told me he was back in the 30 ML range. Hearing that his numbers were down was disappointing and she let me know that Brian's numbers are going to fluctuate for some time. She told me not to get too fixated on numbers. It's really hard to know how to measure progress.  Hopefully, his lungs are now more clear and are able to get more oxygen.  (This update is for May 31st. I just didn't get it on the blog before midnight)